Web Map Tile Service (WMTS)

A RESTful implementation of the WMTS OGC Standard.

WARNING

We only support the GetCapabilities and GetTile operation through a RESTful API endpoint. KVP and SOAP encodings are not not available.

GetCapabilities

The GetCapabilities document provides information about the service, along with layer description, both in German and French.

https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml?lang=<Lang>

Parameter	Description
Lang (optional)	The language. Supported values: de, fr (Defaults to de)

Supported Projections

Tiles are available in four supported projections:

• LV95/CH1903+ (EPSG:2056)
  https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/EPSG/2056/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml

• LV03/CH1903 (EPSG:21781)
  https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/EPSG/21781/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml

• Plate-Carrée WGS1984 (EPSG:4326, in lat/lon order)
  https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/EPSG/4326/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml

• WGS84/Pseudo-Mercator (EPSG:3857, as used in OSM, Bing, Google Map)
  https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/EPSG/3857/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml

Notes:

• Partly due to a limitation of the WMTS 1.0.0 recommendations, each projection has its own GetCapabilities document.
• The same timestamps are available in all projections. New timestamps are added to the former ones.
• The layer ch.kantone.cadastralwebmap-farbe uses a WMS service as its source.
• All layers are available at all scales. You have to check for which tileMatrixSets a particular layer is defined. Your WMTS client may either stretch the tiles from the last available level or display nothing.

GetTile

http://wmts.geo.admin.ch/<Version>/<LayerBodId>/<StyleName>/<Time>/<TileMatrixSet>/<TileSetId>/<TileRow>/<TileCol>.<FormatExtension>

Use the following parameters to define your request:

Parameter	Example	Description
Version	1.0.0	WMTS protocol version
Layername	ch.bfs.arealstatistik-1997	The technical layer name. See the <ows:Identifier> tag of the layer in the WMTS GetCapabilities document.
StyleName	default	Only default is supported.
Time	2010, 2010-01	Date of tile generation in (ISO-8601) or logical value like current. A list of available values is provided in the GetCapabilities document under the <Dimension tag. We recommend to use the value under the <Default> tag. Note that these values might change frequently - check for updates regularly.
TileMatrixSet	2056 (constant)	EPSG code for LV03/CH1903
TileSetId	22	Zoom level (see table below)
TileRow	236
TileCol	284
FormatExtension	png	Mostly png, except for some raster layer (pixelkarte and SWISSIMAGE)

With the tileOrigin in the top left corner of the bounding box:

Resolution [m]	Zoom Level	Map zoom	Tile width [m]	Tiles X	Tiles Y	Tiles	Approx. scale at 96 dpi per zoom level
4000	0	1024000	1	1	1	1
3750	1	960000	1	1	1	1
3500	2	896000	1	1	1	1
3250	3	832000	1	1	1	1
3000	4	768000	1	1	1	1
2750	5	704000	1	1	1	1
2500	6	640000	1	1	1	1
2250	7	576000	1	1	1	1
2000	8	512000	1	1	1	1
1750	9	448000	2	1	2	2
1500	10	384000	2	1	2	2
1250	11	320000	2	1	2	2
1000	12	256000	2	2	4	4
750	13	192000	3	2	6	6
650	14	0	166400	3	2	6	1 : 2’456’694
500	15	1	128000	4	3	12	1 : 1’889’765
250	16	2	64000	8	5	40	1 : 944’882
100	17	3	25600	19	13	247	1 : 377’953
50	18	4	12800	38	25	950	1 : 188’976
20	19	5	5120	94	63	5’922	1 : 75’591
10	20	6	2560	188	125	23’500	1 : 37’795
5	21	7	1280	375	250	93’750	1 : 18’898
2.5	22	8	640	750	500	375’000	1 : 9’449
2	23	9	512	938	625	586’250	1 : 7’559
1.5	24		384	1250	834	1’042’500
1	25	10	256	1875	1250	2’343’750	1 : 3’780
0.5	26	11	128	3750	2500	9’375’000	1 : 1’890
0.25	27	12	64	7500	5000	37’500’000	1 : 945
0.1	28	13	25.6	18750	12500	234’375’000	1 : 378

Notes:

1. The projection for the tiles is LV95 (EPSG:2056). Other projection are available, see Supported Projections.
2. The tiles are generated on-the-fly and stored in a cache.
3. Zoom level 24, with a resolution of 1.5m, is available in the tile pyramid but it is not currently made available through the API.
4. The zoom levels 27 and 28 (resolution 0.25m and 0.1m) are only available for a few layers, e.g. SWISSIMAGE or cadastral web map. For the other layers it is only a client zoom (tiles are stretched).
5. You have to use the ResourceURL to construct the GetTile request.
6. Axis order: for historical reasons, EPSG:21781 WMTS tiles use the non-standard row/col order, while all other projections use the usual col/row order. However, most desktop GIS allow you to either use the advertised order or to override it.
7. The tiles of a given layer might be updated without resulting in a new <Time> dimension in the GetCapabilities dimension. If your application caches tiles locally, you need to invalidate your local cache for this layer. To check the latest change of any layer, use the Cache Update service.

Example of a GetTile request:

curl -o demo.jpg https://wmts.geo.admin.ch/1.0.0/ch.swisstopo.pixelkarte-farbe/default/current/21781/20/58/70.jpeg

The output image:

Cache Update

As noted in the GetTile section, the tiles of a given <Time> dimension might be updated for technical reasons. If you are caching tiles locally, this might result in your cache being outdated. Use the Cache Update service to query the date of the last update for a given layer. If your cache is older than the returned date, you have to clear your local cache.

https://api3.geo.admin.ch/rest/services/api/MapServer/<LayerBodId>/cacheUpdate

The latest cache update for the product SWISSIMAGE:

Request

Response

curl https://api3.geo.admin.ch/rest/services/api/MapServer/ch.swisstopo.swissimage-product/cacheUpdate

Examples: OpenLayers

This OpenLayers example shows how the CadastralWebMap appears differently when loaded using a WMTS compared to a tiled WMS.

Using geo.admin.ch WMTS tiles in the new LV95 frame (EPSG:2056).