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Shaded-relief view of the land around Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

36 ha inside the gold line

500 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province

36 ha · 9.838, -84.205 · Costa Rica

51out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Workable land — the plan must come before the capital.

18th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 47 conservation priority

Water: 64
Soil: 65
Ecology: 54
Climate: 45
Pressure: 17

9 of 14 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, snit_cr…

The reading in full

This 36-hectare parcel near Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital. It scores 51 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.

The risks that most shape a decision here: The rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it. A swing this large more often reflects a data artifact or measurement change than real climate; water planning should wait on local records rather than build on this number. 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.

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 wider readings: Rainfall is very high. Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter. The land is gently rolling. Gentle terrain is generally workable with only minor grading for buildings or roads. 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 moderate. The soil is workable but will benefit from cover cropping and organic inputs to build fertility before intensive use. Road and town access are close. Good access lowers development and logistics costs but can raise encroachment pressure and land prices.

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 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 workable land whose plan must come before the capital. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province — Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 · ESA / Copernicus

The verdict, the five pillar readings, how much of the land was read, and the headline figures.

The verdict

51out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Workable land — the plan must come before the capital.

Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

18th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 47 conservation priority

Five readings

Water64

Soil65

Ecology54

Climate45

Pressure17

Weakest: Pressure

All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land.

Standing

18thpercentile

Subtropical · Neotropic · against 34 readings · 20th of all 100

Coverage

100%

weight read

9 of 14 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the national registry +2.

Where the capital goes

47/ 100 priority

Frontierhospitality fit 68

Best-fit model

Watershed protection

62 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

36ha

Elevation

1,095m

1,043–1,142 m

Slope

4.2°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

68%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

5,086mm/yr

-59% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+1.2°C

rain +22%

Soil carbon

34.8g/kg

pH 5.3

Nearest road

0.0km

Species records

994records

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 5,086 mm of rain falls here in a year. 68% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (4.2° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 89 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Negro, Río Jorco). A road runs against the boundary, and settlement sits within a kilometre, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.2 °C and +22% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — 4.5% of the tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall down 59% over twenty years.

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

36 hectares at Palmichal of rolling land around 1,095 m. The ground reads 68% under canopy, 24% built. Water shapes it — 5,086 mm of rain a year, 89 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Palmichal, 0.18 km away.

Its vocationprotect

Hold the water tower for everyone downstream. Steep (4.2°), wet (5,086 mm/yr), and river-laced, this parcel's highest value is the water and soil it keeps in place for everyone downstream.

1,095 m elevation68% forest24% built4.2° slopeFrontier tier — outside the mapped network

Its trajectoryholding, but drying— the canopy has held while the rain record fell -59%.

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

The forest here has held for a generation.

recordedThis canopy has held: 49% cover in 2000, 4.5% 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 water here is thinning.

observedThe twenty-year rain record moved -59% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
estimatedDry spells head toward ~9 days by 2050 — water security, storage, and drought-tolerant planting become the design constraints here.
derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved -59%, while the 2050 model says +22%. Neither cancels the other — the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope: storage for the dry record, drainage for the wet projection.

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.

observed89 watercourses are traced on and around this parcel.
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.
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

For its kind of land, its calm (low pressure) is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 34 readings of like land (Subtropical · Neotropic), this parcel's calm (low pressure) ranks in the bottom 16%.
derivedAn unusual weakness is rarely bad luck — something specific happened or is happening here that its peers escaped.

What to doMake calm (low pressure) the first diligence question on the ground: find the cause before pricing the land.

Bears on what this land is, relative to its kind · medium confidence

Height is this land's climate insurance.

observedAt 1,095 m, today's mean sits at 20.7°C.
estimatedThe +1.2°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.
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 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

68% tree cover on 5,086 mm of rain; 4.5% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2018.

Keep the canopy whole; the loop is running the right way on its own.

Open ground and soil

bare or grazed ground → compaction → runoff → thinner soil

holding

32% open ground on a 4.2° average slope.

Keep the ground covered through the dry season; rested pasture and cover crops turn this loop around on gentle slopes.

The edge and the road

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

running toward degradation

road 0 km, settlement 0.2 km; 4.5% tree cover lost since 2000.

Decide what the road is for before anything else: a gate, a planted edge and a written access rule are the cheapest interventions on this land.

Reading the place

This 36-hectare parcel near Palmichal, Acosta, San Jose Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital, scoring 51 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that the rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it. 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.

Risklow confidence

The rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it.

A swing this large more often reflects a data artifact or measurement change than real climate; water planning should wait on local records rather than build on this number.

The archive's linear trend reads about 59% lower over 20 years (2004–2024) — outside the range the engine treats as dependable.

Riskmedium confidence

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: +1.2 °C mean temperature, +22% rainfall. Exposure rated High.

Opportunitylow confidence

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.

68% of the parcel reads as tree cover (satellite land-cover mapping). Naturalness is not verified.

Opportunityhigh confidence

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 (Río Negro).

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.

5,086 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel.

Terrainhigh confidence

The land is gently rolling.

Gentle terrain is generally workable with only minor grading for buildings or roads.

Mean elevation 1,095 m, mean slope 4°, 99 m of relief.

Biodiversityhigh confidence

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.

994 biodiversity records nearby, including Turdus grayi and Coragyps atratus (GBIF, the global species-record archive).

Soilmedium confidence

Soil organic carbon is moderate.

The soil is workable but will benefit from cover cropping and organic inputs to build fertility before intensive use.

34.8 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, clay loam texture, pH 5.3 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

Accesshigh confidence

Road and town access are close.

Good access lowers development and logistics costs but can raise encroachment pressure and land prices.

About 0.03 km to the nearest road, 0.18 km to Palmichal.

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 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 workable land whose plan must come before the capital. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

47Conservation priority

FrontierCore habitat

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.

Nearest declared corridor: Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca, about 20 km · Área de Conservación Central / La Amistad-Pacífico (ACC / ACLAP)

This reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 47 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 68/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

68/100

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.

Corridorlow confidence

The nearest declared corridor is the Corredor Biológico Volcánica Central–Talamanca, about 20 km away (screening).

The parcel reads as outside the mapped network, so its connectivity value comes from what it holds and what protected land sits beside it rather than a corridor mandate. That corridor links Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, Volcán Irazú / Turrialba, Parque Internacional La Amistad.

Nearest PNCB screening extent ~20 km. Extents are approximate — confirm against SINAC/PNCB.

Conservationmedium confidence

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.

68% tree cover.

Hospitalitymedium confidence

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 68/100, drawing on standing forest, 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 committing
Intact 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 with a local lawyer, then scope a servidumbre ecológica (ecological easement) and FONAFIFO's PSA forest-protection payment (Pago por Servicios Ambientales — Costa Rica's national payment for keeping forest standing) against the parcel.
02
Protect the standing forest and remove the active threats to it.
First visit
The 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 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.
04
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.

How it compares

18thpercentile · Subtropical · Neotropic

Ranked against 34 readings · same thermal belt

20th percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

Reads below most of the 34 readings logged in Subtropical · Neotropic — stronger than 18%. Soil is its strongest signal here (56th percentile), development pressure its weakest (16th). Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the east.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

28th

Soil

56th

Ecology

49th

Climate

20th

Low pressure

16th

Landscape · 15 readings within 54 km

·Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the east
·Land reads stronger toward the north-east

Percentiles compare this reading against the growing corpus of public TERRA readings in like land — not all land on Earth. They sharpen as the wall grows.

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

20.7°C

Mean temp

+1.2°C

2050 Δ temp

+22%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · High

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.2°C warmer than today's, with 22% 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

5,086mm/yr

Rainfall

-59.0%

20-yr trend

On site

To watercourse

Río Negro · Río Jorco · Quebrada · Quebrada Honda

Soil · 0–30 cm

34.8g/kg

Org. carbon

5.3

34%

Sand

34%

Clay

Clay loam

Terrain & cover

1,095m

Elevation

4.2°

Mean slope

68%

Forest

24%

Built

Tree cover 67%Built-up 24%Grassland 9%

The living surface

What grows here, what is being lost, and what presses on it.

Ecology

994

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Turdus grayi · Coragyps atratus · Ramphocelus passerinii · Tyrannus melancholicus

Pressure

0.0km

To road

0.2km

To settlement

Palmichal

Forest history · since 2000

49%

Tree cover 2000

4.5%

Cover lost

2018

Latest loss

Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11

Record & context

What the state and its institutions say about this ground.

Costa Rica ecological corridor

Nearby

Corridor

~20 km away

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 →

Best-fit regenerative model

Watershed protection

62 / 100 fit

Hold the water tower for everyone downstream.

Steep (4.2°), wet (5,086 mm/yr), and river-laced, this parcel's highest value is the water and soil it keeps in place for everyone downstream.

Steep, wet, river-laced ground whose highest value is the water and soil it keeps in place. Protect and reforest the slopes; the beneficiaries are downstream.

1,095 m elevation68% forest24% built4.2° slope5,086 mm rain/yr

Also consider · Ecolodge / retreat (46) · Regenerative village (45)

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 (68/100) 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 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.
02
Design to the 2050 climate projections rather than today's conditions.
First year
The 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 visit
Satellite 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
Confirm soil and water on the ground, then design to what the land can carry.
First visit
The land is workable, but the plan has to be built to its limits rather than around a hoped-for use.
Confirm on the ground · Ground-truth the key constraints before committing to a use, then size the plan to them.

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?
Standing under the canopy, is it one species or many — and which parts would you protect rather than replant?
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.

Schedule a 30-min call →See services or email us

Sources & method · 9 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)

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

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 national registry, the governance record, the thermal read — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.

Generated Fri, 03 Jul 2026 22:57:33 GMT · 5.5s · synthesized by TERRA.