Land Intelligence Report

Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province

2 ha · 9.9345, -83.8902 · The water is willing. Follow it.

Terrain · shaded relief — Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province
250 m
Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles
Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province
250 m
Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 · ESA / Copernicus

The reading in full

This 2-hectare parcel near Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 62 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.

The risks that most shape a decision here: Rainfall has been declining over the past two decades. Water planning should target the drier conditions ahead, not today's averages; storage and drought-tolerant choices matter more here. Hazard screening rates this district high for earthquake, landslide. A high screening class means the hazard must be taken into account in planning and design — it is a division-scale flag from mixed-vintage hazard sets, not a site assessment. Commission local hazard mapping before siting anything permanent. The district screens medium for urban flood, and nothing is mapped against it within reach. A hazard class is one fact; the same class with no fire station, flood works, water works, or emergency post mapped within reach is another — an adaptation gap. The works may exist unmapped, so confirm on the ground; but plan as if the response would have to be the parcel's own. 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: The soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration. Carbon-rich soil holds water and nutrients well, supports higher yields and faster regrowth, and may qualify for soil-carbon programs. A watercourse lies close to the parcel. Nearby surface water improves access to irrigation and supply and adds habitat value, though rights and distance still affect how usable it is. This is corridor land where adaptation capital has the most to protect. Two readings that are usually kept apart say the same thing here: the land matters to the network, and the hazard classes that threaten it are unanswered within reach. Closing that gap — response, works, water — protects connectivity, not just this parcel. That is the place to spend first.

The wider readings: Models project a warmer and wetter climate here by 2050. Expect a warmer and wetter future here; favour species and infrastructure that tolerate the projected range. Rainfall is very high. Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter. This parcel is a position in a watershed, not an island. What arrives here is decided upstream, and what happens here is felt downstream — land use on this parcel is water stewardship for everyone below it. Read the upstream land uses before trusting the water, and count the downstream neighbours before changing it. The parcel sits at high elevation. Higher ground is cooler, which changes crop suitability and can ease heat stress, but may add access and frost considerations. There is no meaningful flat ground on this parcel. Every structure, track and turning circle here starts with earthworks. That is a cost line before it is a design question, and on erosion-prone ground it is a permanent maintenance one. Little wildlife has been formally recorded here. A low record count usually reflects limited survey effort rather than low biodiversity, so a ground survey is needed before drawing conclusions. The parcel is relatively remote. Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs. 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. Official Costa Rican record places this in Potrero Cerrado, Oreamuno, Cartago. National cadastral and administrative data ground the parcel in the legal record — the basis for title, permitting, and tax diligence.

What the land is telling us: The land reads as holding rather than actively regenerating: the standing cover is intact, but the water or vegetation signal is under strain, so the trajectory turns on how the coming dry years are managed. Of the land's core processes, the water cycle reads as adequate to abundant, so the question is less supply than how well the land captures and holds what falls and community dynamics are barely recorded here — an absence of data, not necessarily of life. 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 the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

Physical risk and adaptation

HazardCategoryScreening classAdaptation mappedReading
River floodacute · climate-relatedvery lownothing mapped within reachno flood works mapped within 10 km · parcel unlikely: seasonal water 0% of the parcel · mean slope 13.3°quiet
Urban floodacute · climate-relatedmediumnothing mapped within reachno flood works mapped within 10 km · parcel unlikely: seasonal water 0% of the parcel · mean slope 13.3°exposed
Coastal floodacute · climate-relatedno datanothing mapped within reachno coastal or flood works mapped within 10 kmquiet
Earthquakegeophysical · not climate-relatedhighmapped within reachemergency post 1.8 kmbuffered
Landslideacute · climate-relatedhighmapped within reachemergency post 1.8 kmbuffered
Tsunamigeophysical · not climate-relatedno datanothing mapped within reachno coastal or flood works mapped within 10 kmquiet
Volcanogeophysical · not climate-relatedmediummapped within reachemergency post 1.8 kmbuffered
Cycloneacute · climate-relatedlowmapped within reachemergency post 1.8 kmquiet
Water scarcitychronic · climate-relatedvery lowmapped within reachwater works or reservoir 5 kmquiet
Extreme heatchronic · climate-relatedvery lowmapped within reachwater works 5 kmquiet
Wildfireacute · climate-relatedmediummapped within reachfire station 8.5 km (Estación de Bomberos 3-0)buffered
Ground at or below 10 m
0 ha
Under high classes
2 ha · 2 classes
Fire response
~13 min
Emergency response
~3 min

Exposure as quantities, never as money: response minutes assume 40 km/h on rural roads, straight-line distance. The district class covers the whole parcel, so hectares under a high class are the parcel's own area.

Screening classes at district scale (ThinkHazard/GFDRR, hazard sets ~2015–2020, Cartago, Cartago, Costa Rica). Adaptation is mapped presence in OpenStreetMap within graded radii — the condition and design standard of the works are not read.A reading of “buffered” is not a reading of “safe”.

The verdict

62out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

The water is willing. Follow it.

Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province

Corridor tier · 69 conservation priority

Five readings

Water92strong
Soil86strong
Ecology3watch
Climate72strong
Pressure43fair

Weakest: Ecology

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

20 of 30 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the infrastructure reach +7.

Where the capital goes

69/ 100 priority

Corridorhospitality fit 53

Best-fit model

Upper-watershed research station

55 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area
1.7ha
Elevation
2,279m
2,252–2,299 m
Slope
13.3°
Buildable bench
0.00ha
0% of the land under 10° slope
Forest cover
5%
Canopy height
not read
Rainfall
3,155mm/yr
-10% over 20 yr
Warming to 2050
+1.6°C
rain +2%
Soil carbon
53.1g/kg
pH 6.0
Nearest road
1.0km
Species records
0records
GBIF, the global species archive

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 3,155 mm of rain falls here in a year. 5% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 13.3° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 74 mapped watercourses cross the land (Rio Reventado, Quebrada Norberta), and what leaves it travels 5 km downstream before the mapped path ends. The nearest road is 1 km off, the nearest settlement is 2.1 km away, and 10% of the parcel is cropped, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.6 °C and +2% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holdingthe canopy has held while the rain record fell -10.4%.

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold. At 2,279 m with 5% tree cover inside the corridor network, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds. To help: plant along the watercourses and the ridge: canopy there returns the most water to the rest.

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

2 hectares at Tierra Blanca of gentle land around 2,279 m. The ground reads 5% under canopy, 10% worked as cropland, 4% built. Water shapes it — 3,155 mm of rain a year, 74 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Potrero Cerrado, 2.05 km away, governed from Cartago. It stands inside the Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca connectivity network (screening extent — confirm against SINAC, the national conservation agency).

Its vocationreconnect

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold. At 2,279 m with 5% tree cover inside the corridor network, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.

2,279 m elevation5% forest10% cropland13.3° slopeCorridor tier — restoration compounds here
Its trajectoryholding, but dryingthe canopy has held while the rain record fell -10.4%.

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…

Reading the land's record…

The water’s position

What arrives here is decided upstream; what happens here is felt downstream. The map in the Land tab can draw both.

Drains to this point
not read
Mapped path below
5.2 km
Source
MERIT-Hydro
a global hydrography grid, ~90 m

Screening hydrography, never a legal drainage determination.

Who governs this land

Costa Rica · Cartago · Tierra Blanca

Human development
0.81
HDI of the canton, 2022 · PNUD/UCR
Population
5,103
of the local governing unit
Area
12.8 km²
of the local governing unit

What the land is exposed to — and what stands against it

One adaptation gap: the district screens medium for urban flood and nothing is mapped against it within reach.

  • Urban floodexposedscreens mediumno flood works mapped within 10 km · parcel unlikely: seasonal water 0% of the parcel · mean slope 13.3°
  • Earthquakebufferedscreens highemergency post 1.8 km
  • Landslidebufferedscreens highemergency post 1.8 km
  • Volcanobufferedscreens mediumemergency post 1.8 km
  • Wildfirebufferedscreens mediumfire station 8.5 km (Estación de Bomberos 3-0)
Ground at or below 10 m
0 ha
Under high classes
2 ha · 2 classes
Fire response
~13 min
Emergency response
~3 min

Exposure as quantities, never as money: response minutes assume 40 km/h on rural roads, straight-line distance. The district class covers the whole parcel, so hectares under a high class are the parcel's own area.

Fire station
8.5 km
Emergency post
1.8 km
Flood / coastal works
not read
Water works
5 km

Screening classes at district scale (ThinkHazard/GFDRR, hazard sets ~2015–2020) read beside what OpenStreetMap has mapped within graded radii. Presence, not effectiveness: the condition of a levee or the crew of a fire station is not read. “Buffered” is not “safe”; “not read” is honest, not zero.

68 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M7.6 — most recent M5.2, 2026 (USGS).

What the record remembers

The named places and features the public encyclopedia holds around this land: the recorded memory, not the whole memory.

  • Tierra Blanca (Costa Rica)0.4 km
  • Tierra Blanca, Cartago0.4 km
  • Sanatorio Durán0.9 km
  • Potrero Cerrado1.7 km
  • Llano Grande (Costa Rica)3.2 km
  • Llano Grande District3.2 km
  • Parque Nacional Volcán Irazú5.3 km
  • Cot (Oreamuno)5.6 km

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 · official, from a public or state record.

  • estimated

    This parcel collects the water of its watershedscreening hydrography (MERIT-Hydro ~90 m)

  • estimated

    This parcel sends its water down Downstream flowpath5.2 km mapped below the parcelscreening hydrography (MERIT-Hydro ~90 m)

  • observed

    This parcel is within reach of Rio Reventadonearest mapped water 0.27 km

  • observed

    This parcel is within reach of Quebrada Norberta

  • official

    This parcel does connectivity work inside Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–TalamancaPNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC

  • official

    Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca is designed to connect Parque Nacional Braulio CarrilloPNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC

  • official

    Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca is designed to connect Volcán Irazú / TurrialbaPNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC

  • official

    This parcel answers to CartagoHDI 0.81 (2022)

  • official

    Cartago sits in Costa Rica

  • observed

    This parcel lives beside Potrero Cerrado2.05 km away

  • estimated

    This parcel is screened as exposed to Earthquakehigh (screening)screening class at admin-division scale

  • estimated

    This parcel is screened as exposed to Landslidehigh (screening)screening class at admin-division scale

  • estimated

    This parcel is screened as exposed to Urban floodmedium (screening)screening class at admin-division scale

  • official

    This parcel stands on ground that has felt Seismic history68 quakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 yr

Where it sits

A living system does not stop at the fence. The parcel is a node in each of these, and it plays a different part at each scale.

  1. 1

    parcel

    2 ha inside the boundary

    mostly open ground

    5% tree cover

  2. 2

    catchment

    its catchment

    a sink: a large country drains through it

    5 km of mapped path below

  3. 3

    corridor

    Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca

    a gap the corridor needs closed

    connects Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo and Volcán Irazú / Turrialba

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 · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · observed, measured from satellite or map data · estimated, from a model, not a measurement · official, from a public or state record.

The forest here has held for a generation.

  1. recordedThis canopy has held: 5% cover in 2000, 0% 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

The weakest number here is a silence, not a judgment.

  1. derivedThe ecology pillar reads 3 — but it leans on zero recorded wildlife observations, and absence of records usually reflects absence of surveys, not absence of life.
  2. derivedTreat that pillar — and the composite it drags — as a floor: one field survey could move this reading materially, in only one direction.

What to doCommission a rapid biodiversity survey before treating the score as the land's ceiling.

Bears on the score itself · high confidence

The water here is thinning.

  1. observedThe twenty-year rain record moved -10.4% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
  2. estimatedDry spells head toward ~8 days by 2050 — water security, storage, and drought-tolerant planting become the design constraints here.

What to doPrice water storage into any plan and verify the dry-season sources on the ground.

Bears on any plan that needs water · medium confidence

Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.

  1. observed74 watercourses are traced on and around this parcel.
  2. officialCosta Rica's Ley Forestal 7575 (art. 33) protects riparian strips — roughly 10–15 m along rivers in rural land, up to 50 m on steep banks and around springs.
  3. derivedMultiply the strips by the watercourses and a material share of the parcel is likely untouchable by law — which is a constraint for building and a gift for conservation.

What to doMap the statutory buffer zones before pricing or siting anything — the buildable area is smaller than the deed.

Bears on how much of the land is actually usable · medium confidence

Height is this land's climate insurance.

  1. observedAt 2,279 m, today's mean sits at 13.9°C.
  2. estimatedThe +1.6°C projected by 2050 arrives on that cool baseline — roughly 0 hot days a year here while lowland sites cross heat thresholds this parcel never reaches.
  3. derivedAs the lowlands warm, land that stays temperate does double work: livable for people, refuge for species moving uphill.

What to doTreat elevation as an appreciating part of the asset — and design for the species arriving from below, not only the ones here now.

Bears on the decades ahead · medium confidence

The road that serves this land also exposes it.

  1. observedA road passes 1.02 km from the parcel — access is cheap.
  2. officialThe parcel does connectivity work inside Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca — and roads are where corridor edges fray first.
  3. derivedWhatever makes this land easy for you makes it easy for extraction: the road is both your driveway and the pressure vector.

What to doControl the access early — gates, a present caretaker, and (in Costa Rica) enrolment in the PSA forest-protection payment turn the road back into an asset.

Bears on the boundary line · 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

5% tree cover on 3,155 mm of rain; 0% of the tree cover lost since 2000.

Plant along the watercourses and the ridge: canopy there returns the most water to the rest.

Open ground and soil

bare or grazed ground → compaction → runoff → thinner soil

running toward degradation

95% open ground on a 13.3° average slope, 10% cropped.

Cover the steep open ground first — contour planting or rested pasture — before the soil that is left goes downhill.

The edge and the road

access → clearing at the edge → more edge → more access

holding

road 1 km, settlement 2.1 km; 0% 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 2-hectare parcel near Tierra Blanca, Cartago, Cartago Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 62 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that rainfall has been declining over the past two decades. Its main strength is that the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration. The first move: build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.

Riskmedium confidence

Rainfall has been declining over the past two decades.

Water planning should target the drier conditions ahead, not today's averages; storage and drought-tolerant choices matter more here.

Annual rainfall is down about 10% over 20 years (linear trend, 2004–2024).

Riskmedium confidence

Hazard screening rates this district high for earthquake, landslide.

A high screening class means the hazard must be taken into account in planning and design — it is a division-scale flag from mixed-vintage hazard sets, not a site assessment. Commission local hazard mapping before siting anything permanent.

2 of 11 screened hazards rate high in Cartago, Cartago, Costa Rica (ThinkHazard/GFDRR, screening-grade).

Riskmedium confidence

The district screens medium for urban flood, and nothing is mapped against it within reach.

A hazard class is one fact; the same class with no fire station, flood works, water works, or emergency post mapped within reach is another — an adaptation gap. The works may exist unmapped, so confirm on the ground; but plan as if the response would have to be the parcel's own.

Urban flood: no flood works mapped within 10 km · parcel unlikely: seasonal water 0% of the parcel · mean slope 13.3° (ThinkHazard screen; OpenStreetMap presence, not effectiveness).

Riskhigh confidence

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.

68 earthquakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M7.6, most recent M5.2 in 2026 (USGS catalog).

Opportunitymedium confidence

The soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

Carbon-rich soil holds water and nutrients well, supports higher yields and faster regrowth, and may qualify for soil-carbon programs.

53.1 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, loam texture, pH 6 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

Opportunityhigh confidence

A watercourse lies close to the parcel.

Nearby surface water improves access to irrigation and supply and adds habitat value, though rights and distance still affect how usable it is.

Nearest mapped watercourse is about 0.27 km away (Rio Reventado).

Opportunitymedium confidence

This is corridor land where adaptation capital has the most to protect.

Two readings that are usually kept apart say the same thing here: the land matters to the network, and the hazard classes that threaten it are unanswered within reach. Closing that gap — response, works, water — protects connectivity, not just this parcel. That is the place to spend first.

Corridor land with an unanswered hazard (urban flood): closing the gap here protects connectivity the network depends on — the highest-leverage resilience capital in the reading.

Climatemedium confidence

Models project a warmer and wetter climate here by 2050.

Expect a warmer and wetter future here; favour species and infrastructure that tolerate the projected range.

Projected change by 2050: +1.6 °C mean temperature, +2% rainfall. Exposure rated Moderate.

Waterhigh confidence

Rainfall is very high.

Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter.

3,155 mm of rain per year. Nearest mapped watercourse is about 0.27 km away.

Watermedium confidence

This parcel is a position in a watershed, not an island.

What arrives here is decided upstream, and what happens here is felt downstream — land use on this parcel is water stewardship for everyone below it. Read the upstream land uses before trusting the water, and count the downstream neighbours before changing it.

its own water runs 5.2 km downstream of it (MERIT-Hydro screening hydrography).

Terrainhigh confidence

The parcel sits at high elevation.

Higher ground is cooler, which changes crop suitability and can ease heat stress, but may add access and frost considerations.

Mean elevation 2,279 m, mean slope 13°, 47 m of relief.

Terrainhigh confidence

There is no meaningful flat ground on this parcel.

Every structure, track and turning circle here starts with earthworks. That is a cost line before it is a design question, and on erosion-prone ground it is a permanent maintenance one.

0% of the parcel lies at or under 10°; largest contiguous piece 0 ha; the ground faces west; read on ~9.8 m cells from the Terrarium DEM.

Biodiversitylow confidence

Little wildlife has been formally recorded here.

A low record count usually reflects limited survey effort rather than low biodiversity, so a ground survey is needed before drawing conclusions.

Only 0 biodiversity records nearby (GBIF, the global species-record archive).

Accesshigh confidence

The parcel is relatively remote.

Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs.

About 1.02 km to the nearest road, 2.05 km to Potrero Cerrado.

Accesslow confidence

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.

Costa Rica · Cartago · Tierra Blanca — canton HDI 0.81 (2022, PNUD/UCR), 5,103 people in the governing unit.

Accessmedium confidence

Official Costa Rican record places this in Potrero Cerrado, Oreamuno, Cartago.

National cadastral and administrative data ground the parcel in the legal record — the basis for title, permitting, and tax diligence.

Jurisdiction: Potrero Cerrado, Oreamuno, Cartago. Source: SNIT.

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

The land reads as holding rather than actively regenerating: the standing cover is intact, but the water or vegetation signal is under strain, so the trajectory turns on how the coming dry years are managed.

Of the land's core processes, the water cycle reads as adequate to abundant, so the question is less supply than how well the land captures and holds what falls and community dynamics are barely recorded here — an absence of data, not necessarily of life. 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 the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

69Conservation priority
CorridorRestoration gap

Inside the corridor network, with restoration upside.

inside the network, with restoration upside

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.

Resilience capital · highest leverageCorridor land with an unanswered hazard (urban flood): closing the gap here protects connectivity the network depends on — the highest-leverage resilience capital in the reading.

Within the Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca (screening) · Área de Conservación Central / La Amistad-Pacífico (ACC / ACLAP)

Inside the Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca, this reads as a break in the corridor to close, scoring 69 out of 100 for conservation priority. It sits in the corridor network, where capital spent on restoration compounds into connectivity. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 53/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

53/100
Hospitality fit

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.

Corridormedium confidence

The parcel falls within the Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca (screening).

This is a declared biological corridor in Área de Conservación Central / La Amistad-Pacífico (ACC / ACLAP) — land inside it carries a national connectivity mandate and is where conservation capital compounds, joining protected areas rather than standing alone. The corridor links Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, Volcán Irazú / Turrialba, Parque Internacional La Amistad.

Centroid inside the PNCB screening extent for this corridor. Extent is approximate — confirm the parcel against the official SINAC/PNCB record.

Conservationmedium confidence

This reads as a gap in the corridor — restoring cover here closes a break in connectivity.

A cleared or thin stretch inside the network is the highest-leverage place to restore: replanting or assisted regeneration here reconnects habitat that is otherwise cut, which a stand of forest outside the corridor cannot do.

5% tree cover.

Hospitalitylow confidence

A modest hospitality layer is possible, but it is not the strongest card.

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 53/100, drawing on protected land alongside. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.

Capital moves

  1. 01

    Tie up the land before restoring it — purchase or an easement that holds through a sale.

    Before committing

    Restoration is a multi-year investment; without secure tenure the connectivity it builds can be undone by the next owner.

    Confirm on the ground · Trace the title with a local lawyer and pull the cadastral record; check eligibility for FONAFIFO's PSA payment (Pago por Servicios Ambientales — Costa Rica pays landowners to keep or restore forest) for reforestation or regeneration on the parcel.

  2. 02

    Close the gap: replant the cleared ground and let the neighbouring forest seed back in.

    First year

    This parcel is where the corridor is broken, so restoring cover here reconnects habitat — the single highest-leverage ecological move on the land.

    Confirm on the ground · Walk the parcel with a restoration ecologist to map what to plant and where natural regeneration will do the work on its own; confirm the seed sources in the adjacent forest.

  3. 03

    Close the adaptation gap first — urban flood stand unanswered on corridor land.

    Before committing

    Where the land matters to the network and its hazard classes have nothing mapped against them within reach, the response, works, or water storage that closes the gap protects the connectivity every other move depends on.

    Confirm on the ground · Confirm on the ground whether unmapped works or brigades already exist; if not, scope the response with the municipality and the nearest brigade before committing the ecological work.

  4. 04

    Site a small, low-footprint hospitality operation on the already-worked ground to fund the stewardship.

    Once the land is secured

    A 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 check the Certificado de Sostenibilidad Turística (CST) and local zoning before designing anything.

  5. 05

    Set a connectivity baseline and re-read it — camera traps aimed at the movement the corridor was declared to carry.

    Ongoing

    Funders and partners judge a corridor by whether wildlife actually moves through 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, aimed at the connectivity this corridor was declared for — one of the country's oldest corridors, bridging the Central Volcanic Cordillera to the Talamanca massif.

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. Corridor extents are approximate PNCB screening footprints; confirm a parcel against the official SINAC/PNCB record.

The physical frame

Climate, water, soil, and shape — what the land is made of and what moves across it.

Climate · to 2050

Annual rainfall, 20042024 · mm

13.9°C
Mean temp
+1.6°C
2050 Δ temp
+2%
2050 Δ rain

Exposure · Moderate

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.6°C warmer than today's, with 2% more 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

3,155mm/yr
Rainfall
-10.4%
20-yr trend
0.3km
To watercourse

Rio Reventado · Quebrada Norberta · Río Páez · Río Tatiscú

Soil · 0–30 cm

53.1g/kg
Org. carbon
6.0
pH
45%
Sand
20%
Clay

Loam

Terrain & cover

2,279m
Elevation
13.3°
Mean slope
5%
Forest
4%
Built
Grassland 80%Cropland 10%Tree cover 6%Built-up 4%

Siting

0.00ha
Largest bench
largest contiguous buildable piece
0%
Buildable
at or under 10°
17.8°
Steep end
90th percentile
west
Faces

Measured on ~9.8 m cells across 179 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

0
Recorded wildlife observations
GBIF · the global species-record archive

Pressure

1.0km
To road
2.1km
To settlement
Potrero Cerrado

Forest history · since 2000

5%
Tree cover 2000
0.0%
Cover lost

Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11

Record & context

What the state and its institutions say about this ground.

Costa Rica ecological corridor

Within
Corridor
screening extent
Área de Conservación Central / La Amistad-Pacífico (ACC / ACLAP)
Conservation area

Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca

One of the country's oldest corridors, bridging the Central Volcanic Cordillera to the Talamanca massif.

Connects · Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo · Volcán Irazú / Turrialba · Parque Internacional La Amistad

PNCB / SINAC — Corredores Biológicos (screening reference) · approximate screening extent — confirm against the official SINAC / PNCB record

See the corridor network →

Costa Rica land record

Potrero Cerrado, Oreamuno, Cartago
Jurisdiction

SNIT Costa Rica (IGN / IDECORI) · official national data — verify title & permits locally

Regional illness · dengue

Lower
Recorded burden
rank 64 of 72 cantons
114
Notifications 2013–2018
~19/yr
92
Worst year
2013

Oreamuno district · nationally, Costa Rica recorded 31,259 dengue notifications in 2024.

OpenDengue (PAHO / Ministerio de Salud record) · notification counts (suspected + probable + confirmed (non-severe & severe)), not population-adjusted — historical burden geography, not the current season. Ground-truth with the Ministerio de Salud's weekly bulletin.

Future · the horizons the engine has read

Now

Mean temperature
13.9 °C
Rain, latest year (2024)
3,417 mm
Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
0
Longest dry spell
10 days
Mean elevation
2,279 m

The rain row is one year alone — the Water panel's 3,155 mm is the long mean, and with the record down 10% in twenty years, recent years sit below it by design.

2050

Temperature shift
+1.6 °C+1.6 to +1.9 °C across 4 models
Rainfall shift
+2 %-6 to +13 % across 4 models
Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
0
Longest dry spell
8 days (-2)
Exposure
Moderatea real but workable projected shift
Resilience reading
72 / 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

Upper-watershed research station

55 / 100 fit

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold.

At 2,279 m with 5% tree cover inside the corridor network, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.

Intact montane forest at the top of a watershed, rich enough to justify a small research-and-education presence that funds protection of the water tower below.

2,279 m elevation5% forest10% cropland13.3° slope3,155 mm rain/yr

Also consider · Watershed protection (50) · Corridor anchor reserve (34)

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 (53/100) is a different scale that asks only whether a small lodge could fund the stewardship here — the two need not match.

What to do

  1. 01

    Build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.

    First dry season

    Water, 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.

  2. 02

    Commission a flood-line survey before siting anything permanent on the low ground.

    Before committing

    The district screens material for river or urban flood and no flood works are mapped within 10 km; the parcel's own low ground is where that lands.

    Confirm on the ground · Have a hydrologist or the municipal engineer mark the recorded flood line on the parcel; ask long-time neighbours where the water reached in the worst year they remember.

  3. 03

    Carry out a field biodiversity survey to see what the records miss.

    First year

    A thin record here usually reflects little survey effort, not little life; what actually lives on the parcel shapes both its value and its constraints.

    Confirm on the ground · Have an ecologist survey across seasons; local naturalists and birders often already know the site.

  4. 04

    Walk the land to scope the regenerative work before committing capital.

    First visit

    The 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

  • At the end of the dry season, where does water still hold on this land — and what would keep it there a month longer?
  • The soil is a real asset here — what use would build it further rather than spend it down?
  • 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.

Reading this land to

Talk it through with us

This reading is built from satellite and open data. It cannot see soil biology, legal tenure, or what you already know from walking the land — a 30-minute call tests the reading against the ground and sequences the work. No cost, no obligation.

Sources & method · 20 layers
Water, roads & protected areas — OpenStreetMap

Overpass (waterways, highways, places, protected areas)

vector · live
ODbL 1.0
Biodiversity — GBIF

Occurrence records (count + top species)

point · live
Mixed CC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-NC (per dataset)
Adaptation layer — OpenStreetMap

Nearest fire station, emergency post, flood/coastal defence, water works, monitoring station, coastline — mapped presence, not effectiveness

feature · live
ODbL 1.0
Place memory — Wikipedia

Named places and features of the surrounding landscape (titles + distances)

article · live
CC BY-SA 4.0 (titles/facts)
Costa Rica territorial record — SNIT

Administrative units, cadastral parcels, agrological land-capability, protected areas, Holdridge life zones (WFS)

vector (1:5 000 base) · national SDI (rolling)
SNIT Condiciones Generales de Uso (attribution)
Ecological corridors — PNCB / SINAC (Costa Rica)

Declared biological corridors (bundled screening reference of official corridors; approximate extents — confirm against SINAC/PNCB)

screening extent · PNCB (rolling)
Public programme (SINAC); reference compiled for screening
Regional illness — dengue burden (Costa Rica)

Dengue notifications by cantón 2013–2018 (suspected + probable + confirmed) + national series to 2024; bundled OpenDengue V1.3 extract — historical burden geography, not the current season

cantón · 2013–2018 (cantón) / 2024 (national)
CC-BY 4.0 (OpenDengue)
Place — OpenStreetMap / Nominatim

Nominatim reverse geocode

settlement · live
ODbL 1.0
Terrain — AWS Terrarium (Mapzen)

Terrarium elevation tiles

~10 m (z12) · 2017
Open (attribution)
Climate — Open-Meteo

Archive 2004–2024 + MPI-ESM1-2-XR to 2050

~9 km · 2004–2024 / 2045–2049
CC-BY 4.0 (data); non-commercial API tier
Soil — ISRIC SoilGrids v2

SoilGrids v2.0 (SOC, pH, sand, clay; 0–30 cm)

250 m · 2020
CC-BY 4.0
Land cover — ESA WorldCover

WorldCover 2021 v200

10 m · 2021
CC-BY 4.0 (commercial promotion: notify due@esa.int)
Surface water — JRC Global Surface Water

Global Surface Water v1.4 — occurrence & seasonality

30 m · 1984–2021
Copernicus / open (attribution)
Forest loss — Hansen Global Forest Change

Global Forest Change (tree cover 2000 + annual loss)

~30 m · 2000–2023
CC-BY 4.0
Siting — TERRA geometry on the AWS Terrarium DEM

Per-cell slope and aspect (Horn), buildable share, largest contiguous bench

~10–80 m cells, parcel-dependent (stated per reading) · 2017 (DEM)
Open (attribution)
Watershed — Global Watersheds (MERIT-Hydro)

Upstream basin + downstream flowpath (screening hydrography)

~90 m · MERIT-Hydro 2019
Open service, no warranty; engine open source (delineator)
Hazard screening — ThinkHazard!

Multi-hazard classes at admin-division scale (screening-grade; hazard sets ~2015–2020)

admin division · division report (mixed vintages)
GFDRR open (attribution)
Seismicity — USGS earthquake catalog

M ≥ 5 events within 100 km, past 50 years

event · live catalog
US public domain (cite USGS)
Governance — public map record + Wikidata

Administrative hierarchy + structured facts of the governing unit

admin unit · live / Atlas data year 2022
ODbL 1.0 / CC0 / PNUD-UCR publication (attribution)
Indigenous territories — official record (Costa Rica)

Official decree-delimited territory boundaries (legal-constraint overlay; never scored or ranked)

official boundary · decree delimitations (rolling)
SNIT/FONAFIFO public services (attribution); decree facts public law

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, the heritage record, the governance record, the thermal read, the biomass map, the underground atlas, the population grid, modis fire history — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.

Generated Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:27:54 GMT · 19.1s · synthesized by TERRA.

Generated Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:27:54 GMT · synthesized by TERRA · Dear Wise Earth.