The Swiss cadastral surveying is the guarantor of landownership in Switzerland. It comprises three pillars: the cadastral surveying, the public law restrictions on landownership (PLR) cadastre and the land register.

The cadastral surveying system is characterised by a smoothly functioning cooperation between the federal government, the cantons and municipalities, as well as between the public and private sectors. The know-how of Swiss cadastral surveying specialists is also much in demand at the international level.

Highly qualified personnel are active in a broad variety of professions, both in the field, where they collect data, and in the office, where they process, update and deliver the data to clients. In this way they are pursuing traditions that can be traced back as far as the 17th century, namely recording landownership boundaries on plans, originally on cardboard, aluminium plates and similar analogue data carriers, but today almost exclusively in digital form. This activity was, and remains, a crucial element in the economic and social development of the country, and represents a major economic factor.

Specialists are increasingly playing the role of geodata managers: with the necessary expertise, the range of uses for geographic data is practically unlimited.

Recent legislation in the area of cadastral surveying focuses strongly on geographic information, and this is clearly reflected in the Federal Geoinformation Act.