Ecomorphological survey of the shores of the lake

Lakes are influenced by a variety of human uses. The waterfront areas of many Swiss lakes are affected: Shore constructions reduce habitat quality for plants and animals. The state of the lake shore of the canton of Zurich was assessed in 2019 according to the method of the module Ecomorphology Seeufer of the Federal Office for the Environment (Niederberger et al. 2016). Using aerial images, the actual lakeshore morphology as well as uses, installations and installations in and on the lake shore were collected on the basis of characteristics. Based on a target hierarchy, the assessment of the ecomorphological state of the lakeshore was then carried out on the basis of the collected characteristics by means of value functions. The application of a target hierarchy enabled a differentiated view of individual shore compartments such as “flat water zone”, “river line” and “river zone”. The values calculated for each shore compartment using value functions were assigned to one of five quality classes from natural/natural to artificial. The seashore sections were shown according to their quality class in blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The ecomorphological assessment was carried out for ten lakes (minimum 5 ha) of the Kt. Zurich carried out: — Lake Zurich (part of canton of Zurich) as well as an island — Greifensee — Pfäffikersee — Türlersee — Unterer Chatzensee — Oberer Chatzensee — Hüttnersee — Lützelsee — Grosser Husemersee — Bichelsee