Alps Endangered as Swiss Sprawl Spreads

"Geographers also found that the modern level of sprawl – inefficient, low-density development – in places like the Rhone Valley was proportionately identical to levels around Zurich."

"'There really is no difference,' Christian Schwick, a geographer and co-author of the study, told swissinfo. 'We in Switzerland think of the Alps as being untouched landscape, but we have seen this is not true.'"

"By comparing maps from 1935, 1960, 1980 and 2002, researchers were able to assign a coefficient to sprawl, with lower numbers signifying denser, more efficient communities."

"In 1935 sprawl had a factor of 1.2. By 2002 it had leapt to nearly 2.6."