Public reading

Shaded-relief view of the land around Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste, the parcel boundary drawn in gold100 ha inside the gold line
500 m
Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste

100 ha · 10.527, -85.747 · Costa Rica

63out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Real upside, waiting on the work.

60th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 38 conservation priority

Water
100
Soil
60
Ecology
56
Climate
21
Pressure
69

9 of 13 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, worldbank_wgi…

The reading in full

This 100-hectare parcel near Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 63 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.

The risks that most shape a decision here: About 5% of the parcel is permanently under water. This area cannot be built on or farmed without major drainage or fill work, so it reduces the usable land and the cost of developing it. Dry spells are projected to run about 76 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. A meaningful share of this land's tree cover has been cleared since 2000. Long-term loss points to historical or ongoing clearing pressure and a lower conservation baseline; confirm the legal status and whether clearing is still active.

The wider readings: The land is projected to see roughly 122 hot days a year by 2050. Many days above 32 °C stress crops, livestock, workers, and unshaded ground; favour heat-tolerant species, shade, and water retention, and plan for cooling and storage. Rainfall is high and supports rain-fed use. There is enough water for most crops and forestry with little or no irrigation; dry-season storage still helps. 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. The parcel is relatively remote. Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs.

What the land is telling us: The longer record suggests a land that has been drawn down rather than held: about 12% of its tree cover has been cleared since 2000, most recently in 2019. The cover is measurably coming back now — a land recovering, which is a workable base, but the history is the reason the foundational work comes first. 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 land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste
500 m
Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles
Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste
500 m
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

63out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Real upside, waiting on the work.

Sardinal, Carrillo, Guanacaste

60th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 38 conservation priority

Five readings

Water100strong
Soil60fair
Ecology56fair
Climate21watch
Pressure69strong

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

60thpercentile

Tropical humid · Neotropic · against 26 readings · 61st of all 100

Coverage

9 of 13 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the governance record +1.

Where the capital goes

38/ 100 priority

Frontierhospitality fit 63

Best-fit model

Coastal buffer · blue–green

58 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area
100ha
Elevation
29m
1–137 m
Slope
4.0°
Buildable bench
not read
Forest cover
59%
Canopy height
not read
Rainfall
2,023mm/yr
+57% over 20 yr
Warming to 2050
+1.3°C
rain -25%
Soil carbon
31.4g/kg
pH 6.4
Nearest road
3.6km
Species records
6,174records
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 2,023 mm of rain falls here in a year. 59% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (4° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 4 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Sardinal, Quebrada San Francisco). The nearest road is 3.6 km off, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.3 °C and -25% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding11.9% of the tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall up 57% over twenty years.

To help: stop the clearing at the streams first: every metre of canopy kept along water holds the loop together.

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

100 hectares at Sardinal of rolling land around 29 m. The ground reads 59% under canopy, 10% built. Water shapes it — 2,023 mm of rain a year, 4 traced watercourses.

Its vocationbuffer

Protect the blue–green edge. Low-lying at 29 m, this reads as a coastal or wetland edge — an inference from elevation and water signals, not a measured shoreline distance, so confirm how near the water actually is. If it holds, the play is the buffer: protect and restore it for blue carbon (the carbon coastal wetlands lock away), storm defence, and nursery habitat.

29 m elevation59% forest4.0° slope2,023 mm rain/yrFrontier tier — outside the mapped network
Its trajectoryrecoveringcut after 2000, the cover is returning.

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.

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

Generated Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:23:03 GMT · 6.2s · synthesized by TERRA.