BasinScope Alps

Data API

The figures behind the dashboard as plain JSON: the ranked basin sites of the Jungfrau–Aletsch area with their protection and hazard-index checks, the runoff scenarios of their catchments, the hydropower plants and dams around them, Swiss grid records, what satellites measured of the area's snow and ice, and the past forecasts the risk outlook is tested against. Read-only, no key, callable from a browser on any origin.

Endpoints

Sites

Meltwater

Energy

Satellite

Risk

Machine-readable description: openapi.json (OpenAPI 3.0). List of all endpoints: index.json.

Quick start

curl

curl https://gopalinternship-unibasel.github.io/basinscope-alps/api/v1/sites.json

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://gopalinternship-unibasel.github.io/basinscope-alps/api/v1/sites.json");
const { data } = await res.json();
const free = data.filter(s => s.type === "new" && !s.protection.strict);

Python

import requests
sites = requests.get("https://gopalinternship-unibasel.github.io/basinscope-alps/api/v1/sites.json").json()["data"]
big = [s for s in sites if s["basin"]["volume_20m_dam_mio_m3"] >= 5]

Response shape

Every JSON endpoint returns a meta block (version, generation date, notice) and the payload in data. sites.geojson is a plain GeoJSON FeatureCollection.

{
 "meta": {
  "api_version": "1.4.1",
  "generated": "2026-10-04"
 },
 "data": {
  "id": 2,
  "name": "Gauligletscher forefield",
  "type": "new",
  "location": {
   "easting_lv95": 2659955,
   "northing_lv95": 1162765,
   "longitude": 8.221306,
   "latitude": 46.613448,
   "elevation_m": 2139
  },
  "glacier_area_upstream_km2": 13.8,
  "basin": {
   "volume_10m_dam_mio_m3": 4.98,
   "volume_20m_dam_mio_m3": 12.49,
   "lake_area_ha": 83,
   "dam_length_m": 210
  },
  "illustrative_investment_chf_m": {
   "dam_10m": 22.7,
   "dam_20m": 56.9
  },
  "catchment_id": 4022
 }
}

Fields

What the API does not do

The files are static, so there is no filtering, paging or writing on the server: fetch a file and filter it in your own code. Scores, the A/B/C classes, usable volume and the energy and payback of the business case depend on the scenario settings chosen in the dashboard and are computed there, not served here. An unknown id returns HTTP 404.

Screening-level results from terrain, inventory and index-map evidence only. Natural hazards are read from federal index maps, not assessed on site; geology is not assessed. Not a basis for engineering or investment decisions without a feasibility study.

Sources