Cartographic visualization of the effects of climate change: a practical application for the Atlas of Switzerland

Climate change represents one of the biggest challenges our society is currently facing.According to the IPCC (2023), the global surface temperature in the period 2011-2020 rose by 1.1 C compared to the period 1850-1900.In the future, the increase could range from 1.5 C to more than 4 C, depending on the climate scenario.Maps can be employed to facilitate effective communication of climate change: the topic has a geographical dimension, and the use of cartography can assist in making the problem more tangible and easier to understand for a broad public (Fish 2020).Data about climate change have an inherent temporal dimension, encompassing measurements from the past and predictions into the future.Interactive digital maps are well-suited for visualising time series of data, allowing the user to select different timestamps.Several atlases illustrate the impact of climate change using maps.For instance, the