Luterbach

Luterbach is a municipality in the district of Wasseramt in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. Luterbach is first mentioned in 1052 as lutere Bach, though this identification is disputed. In 1319 it was mentioned as ville Luterbach. Luterbach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 36.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 34.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.5% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 7.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 15.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.4% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 23.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.3% is used for growing crops and 4.0% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Wasseramt district, south-east of the confluence of the Aare and Emme rivers. Due to constant flooding risk from the flat topography and changes in the course of the Emme, the municipality now stands about from the river. The municipalities of Biberist, Derendingen, Luterbach, Bellach, Langendorf and Solothurn are considering a merger at a date in the future into the new municipality of with an, , undetermined name. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Bar wavy Azure and in chief a Mullet of Five of the same. Luterbach has a population () of . , 14.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.3%. It has changed at a rate of 4.6% due to migration and at a rate of 0% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (2,818 or 90.6%), with Italian being second most common (89 or 2.