Swiss Municipal Data Merger Tool: Open-source Software for the Compilation of Longitudinal Municipal-level Data

Area of Science:

• Data Science
• Geospatial Analysis
• Swiss Demographics

Background:

• Compiling longitudinal datasets with Swiss municipalities is challenging due to frequent municipal mergers.
• Manual spatial referencing for historical data is time-consuming and prone to errors.
• The number of Swiss municipalities decreased significantly from 3,095 in 1960 to 2,202 in 2020.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a tool that automates the process of merging longitudinal municipal data in Switzerland.
• To address the data management challenges posed by municipal boundary changes.
• To facilitate accurate spatial referencing for historical Swiss municipal data.

Main Methods:

• The Swiss Municipal Data Merger Tool (Swiss MDMT) was developed as an open-source R package.
• The tool utilizes data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office's municipality inventory.
• It maps historical municipal boundaries to current ones, accounting for mergers and changes over time.

Main Results:

• The Swiss MDMT effectively automates the spatial referencing of longitudinal municipal data.
• The tool simplifies the merging of historical cross-sectional datasets.
• It provides a reliable solution for managing data affected by municipal restructuring.

Conclusions:

• The Swiss MDMT significantly reduces the effort required for Swiss municipal data merging.
• This tool enhances the accuracy and efficiency of longitudinal research involving Swiss municipalities.
• The open-source R package is freely available, promoting wider adoption and data accessibility.