Guggisberg - Geography

Geography

Guggisberg has an area, as of 2009, of 54.91 km2 (21.20 sq mi). Of this area, 28.83 km2 (11.13 sq mi) or 52.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 21.68 km2 (8.37 sq mi) or 39.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.64 km2 (0.63 sq mi) or 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.9 km2 (0.35 sq mi) or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and 1.82 km2 (0.70 sq mi) or 3.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. 35.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.0% is used for growing crops and 31.0% is pastures and 19.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 1.9% is unproductive vegetation, 1.5% is too rocky for vegetation.

It lies approximately midway between Fribourg and Thun.

The municipality is located in the alpine foothills. It stretchs from the Sense River (the border with the Canton of Fribourg) to the hill country around the Stockhorn mountain chain. In the south the municipality rises into the mountains and includes an alpine and forestry zone as well as the hamlet of Sangernboden. The northern part of the municipality is flatter and features fields, villages, hamlets and individual farm houses (including Riffenmatt, Kalchstätten, Riedstätt, Kriesbaumen, Laubbach) at an elevation of 860–1,120 meters (2,820–3,670 ft).