SOIUSA code

SOIUSA groups' hierarchy

• 5 major sectors ;
• 36 sections ;
• 132 subsections ;
• 333 supergroups ;
• 870 groups ;
• 1625 subgroups.

Encoding

• 2 main parts:
• * Western Alps are identified by roman numeral I;
• * Eastern Alps are identified by roman numeral II;
• 5 major sectors:
• * in Western Alps:
• ** South-western Alps are identified by upper-case letter A;
• ** North-western Alps are identified by upper-case letter B;
• * in Eastern Alps:
• ** Central Eastern Alps are identified by upper-case letter A;
• ** Northern Limestone Alps are identified by upper-case letter B;
• ** Southern Limestone Alps are identified by lower-case letter C;
• 36 sections: identified by numbers from 1 to 36 starting from Ligurian Alps and ending with Slovenian prealps;
• 132 subsections: identified in their own section by the roman numerals needed to count every subsection;
• 333 supergroups: identified in their own subsection by all the upper-case letters needed to count every supergroup;
• 870 groups: identified in their own supergroup by all the numbers needed to count every group;
• 1625 subgroups: identified in their own group by all the lower-case letters needed to count every subgroup.

Encoding example

• I: the mountain belongs to Western Alps,
• A: the mountain belongs to South Western Alps,
• 4: the mountain belongs to Cottian Alps,
• III: the mountain belongs to Northern Cottian Alps,
• B: the mountain belongs to chaîne Bernaude-Pierre Menue-Ambin / catena Bernauda-Pierre Menue-Ambin ,
• 6: the mountain belongs to groupe d'Ambin / gruppo d'Ambin ,
• b: the mountain belongs to a subgroup called crête Sommeiller-Vallonetto / sottogruppo Sommeiller-Vallonetto .