The wetland is located in the area of the city of Uster on the northern edge of the settlement area between the district of Gschwader and the outer guard Werrikon. Together with the immediately north adjoining Werriker Riet and the Chilenriet in the west, it forms a wetland area with an area of almost half a square kilometer. Like the surrounding landscape, the wide depression was shaped by the Linth-Rhein glacier in glacial morphology during the cold ages. In the vicinity there are lakes and other flat moors such as the Hopperenried [2] moraines, boulders and drumlins, which also go back to the landscape-shaping effect of the glacier.
On the west side, important traffic routes lead over heaped dams past Glattenried and Chileried: Zürichstrasse from Uster via Werrikon to Volketswil and the S-Bahn route 5 Pfäffikon – Zürich HB between Uster station and Nänikon-Greifensee station cross the wetland. They intersect at the Werrikon level crossing, which has been a longstanding problem in Uster's traffic planning. [3]
The Werrikerbach flows out of the wetland and flows into the Greifensee at Greifensee and is thus a tributary of the Glatt. There are some groundwater outcrops in the bog.
There are several ponds in Glattenried, some of which come from a former fish farm.