The steepest municipalities in canton Basel-City
National ranking →Bettingen is the steepest municipality in canton Basel-City: its terrain averages 9.1° of slope. Next come Riehen (5.2°) and Basel (2.1°). This is the mean gradient across the whole municipal area, measured on a 40 m elevation grid — a figure for ordering, not an absolute gradient. Source: swisstopo swissALTIRegio 2025.
Ranking
swisstopo · swissALTIRegio 2025How we measure this
swisstopoThe mean slope of the terrain in degrees, averaged over the whole municipal area from the swisstopo swissALTIRegio digital elevation model at 40 m resolution (swissALTIRegio 2025). Two caveats matter. First, it describes the entire territory, not the inhabited settlement — a municipality can be steep overall while its village sits on flat ground. Second, slope depends on the grid it is measured at: at 40 m the figures run a few percent gentler than a 10 m grid, so use them to order municipalities, not as an absolute gradient. Steep terrain and large vertical range tend to coincide; see the greatest-vertical-range ranking.
Frequently asked questions
- Which municipality in canton Basel-City has the steepest terrain?
- Bettingen, whose terrain averages 9.1° of slope (swissALTIRegio 2025) — the steepest of any municipality in canton Basel-City, measured on the swisstopo 40 m elevation grid.
- Why is the slope measured at 40 m?
- Slope depends on the resolution of the elevation grid it is computed from. These figures use the swisstopo 40 m grid, which is stable and comparable across all municipalities; a finer 10 m grid would read a few percent steeper. The ranking order is reliable, but the degree value is not an absolute gradient.