Solothurn - Geography

Geography

Solothurn has an area, as of 2009, of 6.28 square kilometers (2.42 sq mi). Of this area, 1.42 km2 (0.55 sq mi) or 22.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.17 km2 (0.066 sq mi) or 2.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.37 km2 (1.69 sq mi) or 69.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.33 km2 (0.13 sq mi) or 5.3% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 4.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 38.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 17.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 7.5%. Out of the forested land, 0.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 7.0% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

Solothurn is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains.

The municipalities of Biberist, Derendingen, Luterbach, Bellach, Langendorf and Solothurn are considering a merger at a date in the future into the new municipality of with an, as of 2011, undetermined name.