Land Intelligence Report
La Huerta, Región Costa Sur, Jalisco
650 ha · 19.3560, -104.9822 · Good bones. The rest is work.
The reading in full
This 650-hectare parcel near La Huerta, Región Costa Sur, Jalisco is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 61 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.
The risks that most shape a decision here: Rainfall is low, making water availability a primary constraint. Low rainfall limits what can be grown without irrigation and raises the cost and importance of water storage and supply. Dry spells are projected to run about 116 days by 2050. A long rain-free stretch — not the yearly total — is what empties soil moisture and storage; size water storage and choose drought-tolerant planting to the dry spell, not the annual average. This area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050. Large shifts in temperature and rainfall can change what the land can support, so any plan should be built around the projected conditions, not current ones. This ground has a recorded seismic history. Repeated strong earthquakes within reach shape how anything here should be built — seismic design codes, slope stability under shaking, and insurance all follow from it.
Where the upside lies: Most of the parcel reads as tree cover. Tree cover can carry real conservation and carbon value, but satellite land-cover cannot tell natural forest from a monoculture plantation (oil palm, rubber, teak). Confirm which it is before assuming biodiversity or carbon value. A watercourse runs through the parcel. On-site water supports irrigation, livestock, and habitat and can lower water-supply costs — though it may carry buffer or setback rules worth checking. The parcel sits near protected land. Proximity to protected areas raises conservation value and can open eligibility for connectivity or buffer programs, but may also bring land-use restrictions.
The wider readings: The land is gently rolling. Gentle terrain is generally workable with only minor grading for buildings or roads. The largest buildable bench is 193.58 ha. This is the piece that decides what fits: a single footprint, its access, and its services all have to land on contiguous ground. Everything beyond it is a second site, not an extension of the first. The area has a rich record of documented wildlife. High biodiversity adds conservation value, may bring species-protection rules, and can support eco-tourism or habitat-credit programs. Soil organic carbon is low. Low-carbon soil is typically depleted or sandy; building fertility for productive use takes time, cover crops, and organic inputs. The parcel is relatively remote. Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs. The human fabric around this land is measured, not assumed. Labour, emergencies, schooling, and electricity all run on these distances — they decide what daily life and operations here actually cost. Jurisdiction is part of the parcel. Permits, zoning, water, and roads run through these offices — knowing who governs the land is the first step of every plan that touches it.
What the land is telling us: Read across the record, the land reads as stable: the canopy history shows no meaningful loss in a generation and the water signal is holding, which means the work is to build on a sound base rather than to reverse a decline. Of the land's core processes, the water cycle is the binding constraint — rainfall is low, so what the land can carry is set by how water is stored and held and community dynamics look rich, with a deep record of documented life nearby. What orbit cannot see is what happens below the surface — soil biology, structure, and the carbon held in the ground — so treat those as the first things to confirm underfoot. Taken together, this is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
The verdict
Good bones. The rest is work.
La Huerta, Región Costa Sur, Jalisco
Frontier tier · 62 conservation priority
Five readings
Weakest: Climate
All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land.
Standing
Not yet ranked — the wall is still too small for a fair cohort. It sharpens as readings land.
Coverage
17 of 26 layers answered
Every pillar read from live data.
Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the infrastructure reach +6.
Where the capital goes
Frontierhospitality fit 77
Best-fit model
Ecolodge / retreat
Fit from published rules over the indicators.
The land in numbers
Headline figures. The Why tab carries each reading in full, with its source and its date. “Not read” means the source had nothing for this parcel: a gap is named, never filled with a guess.
How this land works
About 960 mm of rain falls here in a year. 96% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (3.7° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 46 mapped watercourses cross the land (Rio Cuitzmala). The nearest road is 3.5 km off, and the nearest settlement is 3.6 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.1 °C and -23% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.
Holding — the canopy record shows no meaningful loss in a generation.
Fund conservation through low-footprint hospitality. Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 77/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation. To help: keep the canopy whole; the loop is running the right way on its own.
The score is the footnote. What matters is the pattern above it: what arrives, what the ground does with it, what leaves, and which way that is moving.
This place
650 hectares at La Huerta of rolling land around 57 m. The ground reads 96% under canopy. Water shapes it — 960 mm of rain a year, 46 traced watercourses. 3,006 people within 5 km, governed from La Huerta.
Fund conservation through low-footprint hospitality. Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 77/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.
This is an outsider's reading, assembled from instruments and public records. It is where understanding begins, not where it ends — the land, its neighbours, and the people who know it hold the rest.
The parcel from orbit
Finding the latest clear satellite pass…
The satellite signature · since 2017
The ground has kept its character between 2017 and 2025.
Each year of satellite record is folded into one signature per 20 m of ground. Where the signature turned, the ground became a different kind of place — cleared, planted, built, burned, flooded or grown back. It says that it changed, never into what.
- Changed
- 0.9%
- Held, on average
- 0.96
Similarity of each cell, 2017 → 2025; the gold line is the parcel. 4,049 pixels at 20 m, cells of 57 m. AlphaEarth Foundations Satellite Embedding (Google / Google DeepMind).
Reads all 9 annual layers the first time, then keeps them.
Land like this
Other ground that reads like this parcel — on the wall, and around it.
On the wall
Comparing with the readings on the wall…
Across the landscape
Compares every 160 m of the 2025 layer around the parcel with its signature. Read once, then kept.
Reading the land's record…
The people around it
Who governs this land
México · Jalisco · La Huerta
What the land is exposed to — and what stands against it
32 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M8 — most recent M5.8, 2023 (USGS).
What the record remembers
The named places and features the public encyclopedia holds around this land: the recorded memory, not the whole memory.
- Emiliano Zapata, Jalisco3.5 km
- Emiliano Zapata (La Huerta)3.6 km
No heritage features recorded within 10 km of this parcel.
Locations are deliberately withheld; presence is shown at landscape scale only. Recorded presence in the open public record only. Absence of information here is not evidence of absence — national heritage registries are the authority.
Relationships
A parcel is a node in living systems, not an island. Each line below is derived from this reading itself.
Each line is tagged with how it is known: estimated, from a model, not a measurement · observed, measured from satellite or map data · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · official, from a public or state record.
- estimated
This parcel collects the water of its watershed— screening hydrography (MERIT-Hydro ~90 m)
- observed
This parcel is crossed by Rio Cuitzmala
- derived
This parcel shares its landscape with Reserva de la Biosfera Chamela-Cuixmala
- official
This parcel answers to La Huerta23,258 people
- official
La Huerta sits in Jalisco
- official
Jalisco sits in México
- observed
This parcel lives beside Emiliano Zapata3.59 km away · 3,006 people within 5 km
- official
This parcel stands on ground that has felt Seismic history32 quakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 yr
The threads
Where the readings connect. Each thread follows one chain of cause and consequence across the instruments, and ends in what it means for what you do.
Each line is tagged with how it is known: recorded, from the historical archive · observed, measured from satellite or map data · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · scientific, from a published study.
The forest here has held for a generation.
- recordedThis canopy has held: 82% cover in 2000, 1% lost since, none of it recent.
What to doThe work here is keeping, not fixing — and the first walk should confirm the stand is as intact up close as it reads from orbit.
Bears on the land's living value · high confidence
Independent instruments agree: water stands on this land.
- observedA watercourse crosses the parcel itself.
- observedAnd the rain record has risen 24.6% in twenty years.
- derived2 separate signals point the same way — this is not one sensor's opinion.
What to doSite anything permanent off the wet ground, and walk the parcel in the rainy season before believing any dry-season visit.
Bears on where anything gets built · high confidence
More water is arriving — and arriving harder.
- observedThe twenty-year rain record moved +24.6% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
- derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved +24.6%, while the 2050 model says -23%. Neither cancels the other — the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope: drainage for the wet record, storage for the dry projection.
What to doKeep or restore cover on the slopes and size drainage for pulses, not averages; verify culverts and crossings in the wet season.
Bears on this land and the people downstream · medium confidence
This land comes with neighbours.
- scientific3,006 people live within 5 km — this land sits inside a living community.
- derivedThe neighbours are the labor pool, the early-warning system, and the social license — the project's first relationships are already living here.
What to doMeet the neighbours before the notary — what they know and want will shape everything here.
Bears on daily life and operating cost · medium confidence
The loops that govern it
Regeneration is not a feature added to land; it is a loop changing direction. These are the ones the readings can see, which way each is running, and where a hand changes it.
Forest and water
canopy → cloud and rain held → streams and soil moisture → canopy
holding
96% tree cover on 960 mm of rain; 1% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2020.
Keep the canopy whole; the loop is running the right way on its own.
The edge and the road
access → clearing at the edge → more edge → more access
holding
road 3.5 km, settlement 3.6 km; 1% tree cover lost since 2000.
Distance is doing the work here; keep it, and do not build the road that would end it.
Reading the place
This 650-hectare parcel near La Huerta, Región Costa Sur, Jalisco is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 61 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that rainfall is low, making water availability a primary constraint. Its main strength is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover. The first move: build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.
Rainfall is low, making water availability a primary constraint.
Low rainfall limits what can be grown without irrigation and raises the cost and importance of water storage and supply.
960 mm of rain per year — below the roughly 1,000 mm rain-fed agriculture usually needs.
Dry spells are projected to run about 116 days by 2050.
A long rain-free stretch — not the yearly total — is what empties soil moisture and storage; size water storage and choose drought-tolerant planting to the dry spell, not the annual average.
Longest yearly run of days under 1 mm of rain projected near 116 days longer than today's 115-day spell (Open-Meteo daily climate).
This area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050.
Large shifts in temperature and rainfall can change what the land can support, so any plan should be built around the projected conditions, not current ones.
Projected change by 2050: +1.1 °C mean temperature, -23% rainfall. Exposure rated High.
This ground has a recorded seismic history.
Repeated strong earthquakes within reach shape how anything here should be built — seismic design codes, slope stability under shaking, and insurance all follow from it.
32 earthquakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M8, most recent M5.8 in 2023 (USGS catalog).
Most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
Tree cover can carry real conservation and carbon value, but satellite land-cover cannot tell natural forest from a monoculture plantation (oil palm, rubber, teak). Confirm which it is before assuming biodiversity or carbon value.
96% of the parcel reads as tree cover (satellite land-cover mapping). Naturalness is not verified.
A watercourse runs through the parcel.
On-site water supports irrigation, livestock, and habitat and can lower water-supply costs — though it may carry buffer or setback rules worth checking.
A mapped river or stream crosses the parcel (Rio Cuitzmala).
The parcel sits near protected land.
Proximity to protected areas raises conservation value and can open eligibility for connectivity or buffer programs, but may also bring land-use restrictions.
Nearest protected area: Reserva de la Biosfera Chamela-Cuixmala.
The land is gently rolling.
Gentle terrain is generally workable with only minor grading for buildings or roads.
Mean elevation 57 m, mean slope 4°, 128 m of relief.
The largest buildable bench is 193.58 ha.
This is the piece that decides what fits: a single footprint, its access, and its services all have to land on contiguous ground. Everything beyond it is a second site, not an extension of the first.
49% of the parcel lies at or under 10°; largest contiguous piece 193.58 ha at about 26 m; read on ~21.9 m cells from the Terrarium DEM.
The area has a rich record of documented wildlife.
High biodiversity adds conservation value, may bring species-protection rules, and can support eco-tourism or habitat-credit programs.
989 biodiversity records nearby, including Liomys pictus and Eudocimus albus (GBIF, the global species-record archive).
Soil organic carbon is low.
Low-carbon soil is typically depleted or sandy; building fertility for productive use takes time, cover crops, and organic inputs.
19.3 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, sandy clay loam texture, pH 6.5 (ISRIC SoilGrids).
The parcel is relatively remote.
Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs.
About 3.53 km to the nearest road, 3.59 km to Emiliano Zapata.
The human fabric around this land is measured, not assumed.
Labour, emergencies, schooling, and electricity all run on these distances — they decide what daily life and operations here actually cost.
3,006 people live within 5 km (WorldPop 2020).
Jurisdiction is part of the parcel.
Permits, zoning, water, and roads run through these offices — knowing who governs the land is the first step of every plan that touches it.
México · Jalisco · La Huerta — 23,258 people in the governing unit.
Confidence reflects the data behind each reading: high when clear passes or strong sources agree, medium on a partial or single-source signal, low where the data is sparse or indirect. A low-confidence reading usually needs one more clear pass, or a check on the ground.
What the land is telling us
Read across the record, the land reads as stable: the canopy history shows no meaningful loss in a generation and the water signal is holding, which means the work is to build on a sound base rather than to reverse a decline.
Of the land's core processes, the water cycle is the binding constraint — rainfall is low, so what the land can carry is set by how water is stored and held and community dynamics look rich, with a deep record of documented life nearby. What orbit cannot see is what happens below the surface — soil biology, structure, and the carbon held in the ground — so treat those as the first things to confirm underfoot.
Taken together, this is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment
Standalone conservation value, outside the mapped network.
standalone value, outside the mapped network
Two lenses, two numbers: the Land Score reads this land's own body; conservation priority reads its position in the network. When they disagree, the gap itself is the finding.
This reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 62 out of 100 for conservation priority. It carries standalone value outside the mapped network — worth holding on its own terms. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 77/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.
The funding layer: a small, low-footprint operation sited on the already-worked ground, sized to carry the restoration — never spending the habitat it depends on.
This reads as intact habitat — the priority is to secure it, not rebuild it.
Standing natural forest is far cheaper to protect than to restore, and holding it inside a corridor keeps the connection open. Securing tenure and legal protection is where capital does the most here.
96% tree cover.
A small hospitality operation could carry the conservation here.
In the regenerative model the lodging is a means, not the end: a low-footprint operation sited on the already-worked ground earns the revenue that funds the restoration and stewardship, while the core is left to recover. Kept small, it also gives the corridor local guardians with a reason to hold it.
Hospitality fit 77/100, drawing on standing forest, protected land alongside, water on site. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.
Capital moves
- 01
Secure this land first — through purchase, or a conservation easement that survives a change of owner.
Before committingIntact corridor habitat holds its value only while it stays intact; locking in protection before the land turns over is the move capital cannot undo.
Confirm on the ground · Confirm title and boundaries, then scope the conservation-easement and payment-for-protection instruments available in this jurisdiction.
- 02
Protect the standing forest and remove the active threats to it.
First visitThe habitat is already here; the work is to keep it — stopping clearing, fire, and hunting pressure holds far more value than any planting would add.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the boundary for signs of encroachment, fire, and hunting; agree the protection terms with neighbours who share the edge.
- 03
Site a small, low-footprint hospitality operation on the already-worked ground to fund the stewardship.
Once the land is securedA modest operation on the already-worked ground earns the revenue that pays for the restoration and the guardians, without spending the habitat it depends on.
Confirm on the ground · Model the operation at a size the land can carry, keep it off the habitat, and confirm the zoning and any sustainable-tourism certification locally.
- 04
Set a wildlife baseline and re-read it — camera traps on the parcel's connecting edges.
OngoingFunders and partners judge conservation land by whether wildlife actually uses it; a repeatable baseline is what turns the thesis into evidence and steers the next round of capital.
Confirm on the ground · Run camera traps and species counts on a fixed schedule and track movement between the parcel and the habitat beside it.
The deployment reading is a screening lens layered on the Land Score — it points capital at the land where it builds the most connectivity, and each move is paired with the ground-truth step that confirms it.
The physical frame
Climate, water, soil, and shape — what the land is made of and what moves across it.
Climate · to 2050
Annual rainfall, 2004–2024 · mm
Exposure · High
2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.1°C warmer than today's, with 23% less rain. Expect is the honest verb: this is the middle of a range of futures, not a certainty — so design to the range, not to today.
Water
Rio Cuitzmala
A watercourse on site and 0% permanent water are both true: the satellite archive counts open water wide enough to see from orbit, and a narrow or tree-covered channel runs below its 30 m pixels.
Soil · 0–30 cm
Sandy clay loam
Terrain & cover
Siting
Measured on ~21.9 m cells across 13,533 points of elevation. Screening geometry from open terrain data — confirm on the ground before siting anything.
The living surface
What grows here, what is being lost, and what presses on it.
Ecology
Liomys pictus · Eudocimus albus · Didelphis virginiana · Cacicus melanicterus
Protected nearby · Reserva de la Biosfera Chamela-Cuixmala
Pressure
Forest history · since 2000
Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11
Future · the horizons the engine has read
Now
- Mean temperature
- 25.5 °C
- Rain, latest year (2024)
- 826 mm
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 9
- Longest dry spell
- 115 days
- Mean elevation
- 57 m
The rain row is one year alone — the Water panel's 960 mm is the long mean, and with the record up 25% in twenty years, recent years sit above it by design.
2050
- Temperature shift
- +1.1 °C+1.1 to +1.4 °C across 4 models
- Rainfall shift
- -23 %-25 to +1 % across 4 models
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 21 (+12)
- Longest dry spell
- 116 days (+1)
- Exposure
- High — a hard projected shift — plan around it
- Resilience reading
- 34 / 100
The resilience reading is the climate pillar from the five dials above — one number, shown here beside the horizon it scores.
The headline projection is one model family (CMIP6 · MPI-ESM1-2-XR via Open-Meteo); the range beside it spans 4 CMIP6 HighResMIP models. All of them run one emissions scenario (SSP5-8.5) — several models, not several futures. The 2045–2049 window stands in for 2050, and expect is the honest word. Intermediate horizons (2030 · 2040) and 2100 are not shown because the engine has not read them — TERRA does not interpolate between measurements.
Best-fit regenerative model
Ecolodge / retreat
61 / 100 fitFund conservation through low-footprint hospitality.
Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 77/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.
Accessible, scenic land beside standing habitat. A small, low-footprint operation on the worked ground earns the revenue that pays for the restoration.
Also consider · Corridor anchor reserve (53) · Coastal buffer · blue–green (48)
A published, rules-based suggestion read from the parcel's own indicators — forest, water, slope, access, and its place in the network. It names the shape of project the land is already set up to carry; confirm it against tenure, soils, and what you know from the ground. These fit numbers rank whole project models against each other; the deployment lens's hospitality fit (77/100) is a different scale that asks only whether a small lodge could fund the stewardship here — the two need not match.
What to do
- 01
Build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.
First dry seasonWater, not the yearly total, is the limiting factor here; storage and drought-tolerant choices decide what the land can carry.
Confirm on the ground · Measure the springs, wells, and watercourses at the end of the dry season, when supply is at its lowest — that is the number to plan against.
- 02
Design to the 2050 climate projections rather than today's conditions.
First yearThe land is strongly exposed to projected change, so species, water storage, and infrastructure should be chosen for the conditions ahead.
Confirm on the ground · Cross-check the projections against the memory of long-time residents on how the seasons have already shifted here.
- 03
Ground-truth what the canopy actually is before assuming forest value.
First visitSatellite land-cover cannot separate natural forest from a monoculture plantation, and the difference decides the conservation and carbon value.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the stand: one species in rows is plantation; mixed ages and species with natural regeneration is forest. A botanist can confirm.
- 04
Walk the land to scope the regenerative work before committing capital.
First visitThe foundations are present and the upside is real, but sequencing the work well is what realises it.
Confirm on the ground · Read the water, soil, and cover on the ground, then plan the work from the most permanent layer down.
Questions to sit with
- Standing under the canopy, is it one species or many — and which parts would you protect rather than replant?
- This parcel sits beside protected land — what could it contribute to that larger habitat that it cannot contribute alone?
- Are you here to hold this land as it is, to work it, or to help it change — and does the reading above serve that intention?
- If the work succeeds, what do the water, the canopy, and the people around this land look like a generation from now — and what is the first condition that has to change for that to begin?
- Where does this reading disagree with what you have seen walking the land? That disagreement is the first thing to check on the ground.
These are not data gaps — they are the questions the data cannot answer.
Ask the analyst
Answers are grounded in this parcel's reading and tagged by basis — observed is measured, derived is reasoned from measurements, estimated is model-based, and unknown is said plainly. The conversation stays in your browser.
Sources & method · 17 layers→
Overpass (waterways, highways, places, protected areas)
Occurrence records (count + top species)
Recorded historic/heritage features within 10 km — generalized to counts, classes and distance bands; never coordinates
Named places and features of the surrounding landscape (titles + distances)
Nominatim reverse geocode
Terrarium elevation tiles
Archive 2004–2024 + MPI-ESM1-2-XR to 2050
SoilGrids v2.0 (SOC, pH, sand, clay; 0–30 cm)
WorldCover 2021 v200
Global Surface Water v1.4 — occurrence & seasonality
Global Forest Change (tree cover 2000 + annual loss)
Per-cell slope and aspect (Horn), buildable share, largest contiguous bench
Upstream basin + downstream flowpath (screening hydrography)
Gridded population 2020 (parcel + 5 km ring sums)
M ≥ 5 events within 100 km, past 50 years
Satellite Embedding v1, annual (64-dimensional per-pixel embedding) — baseline and latest year compared
Administrative hierarchy + structured facts of the governing unit
Every number above is public, open data — named, dated, and licensed. What TERRA does not publish is the lens: the weights, curves, and verdict thresholds that turn these layers into a Land Score. That judgment is calibrated from land walked on the ground, and it stays proprietary.
Unavailable for this parcel: Sentinel-2, the radar, the infrastructure reach, osm adaptation, the governance record, the thermal read, the biomass map, the hazard screen, modis fire history — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.
Generated Sat, 26 Sep 2026 23:57:35 GMT · 20.7s · synthesized by TERRA.
Generated Sat, 26 Sep 2026 23:57:35 GMT · synthesized by TERRA · Dear Wise Earth.