Despite being in the northern part of the region of Ryfylke, Sauda participates in the Haugalandet Council and is under the jurisdiction of the Haugaland og Sunnhordland District Court.

The official blazon is "Azure, three pallets dancetty argent" (Norwegian: I blått en vertical sølv trillingstreng med bredtannet snitt).

This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a set of three, vertical, jagged lines.

Archaeological excavation in Saudasjøen shows that people have been living in Sauda since the latest Ice Age.

This resulted in major ship traffic, giving impetus to further development of the villages and farms in Sauda.

Sauda's time as a farming village was now over, and the people of today still live on the foundation of the new city that emerged.

By the end of World War II, the Germans had finished building a large Aluminum Melting Plant in Saudasjøen, but the production was moved to Årdal in 1946.

The mountains surrounding the village of Saudasjøen contain one of the biggest ski resorts on the west coast of Norway.

The city of Sauda is located on flat land, a delta created by the rivers that empty into the fjord just outside the town centre.

The wettest part of the year is late autumn and winter and the driest is spring and early summer, which demonstrates an oceanic precipitation pattern.

Situated at the innermost part of the long and narrow fjord of Sauda, the oceanic influences are less than in Stavanger, but still enough to moderate winters.

Atlantic lows coming from the west goes up against the mountains surrounding Sauda and the result is a large amount of precipitation.