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Shaded-relief view of the land around Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

100 ha inside the gold line

500 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province

100 ha · 9.220, -83.720 · Costa Rica

54out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Real potential, once the plan is clear.

31st percentile for like land · Keystone tier · 86 conservation priority

Water: 38
Soil: not read
Ecology: 55
Climate: 73
Pressure: 72

10 of 15 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, soilgrids…

The reading in full

This 100-hectare parcel near Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital. It scores 54 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. The terrain is steep, which constrains construction and raises erosion risk. Steep slopes increase building and road costs, limit machinery access, and make the land more prone to erosion and landslides.

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.

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. 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. No satellite soil data is available for this parcel. Soil quality cannot be assessed remotely here, so a ground survey is needed before any agricultural or restoration decision. The parcel is relatively remote. Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs. Official Costa Rican record places this in Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas. 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 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 — Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas 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

54out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Real potential, once the plan is clear.

Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

31st percentile for like land · Keystone tier · 86 conservation priority

Four of five readings

Water38

Soil—

Ecology55

Climate73

Pressure72

Weakest: WaterNot read: Soil

All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land. The unread pillars had their weight redistributed across the rest — reweighted, never guessed.

Standing

31stpercentile

Subtropical · Neotropic · against 34 readings · 31st of all 100

Coverage

80%

weight read

10 of 15 layers answered

Nearly complete — gaps reweighted, not guessed.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the soil survey +2.

Where the capital goes

86/ 100 priority

Keystonehospitality fit 75

Best-fit model

Corridor anchor reserve

86 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

100ha

Elevation

680m

516–767 m

Slope

10.5°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

100%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

6,523mm/yr

-49% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+1.2°C

rain +0%

Soil carbon

not read

Nearest road

5.6km

Species records

2records

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 6,523 mm of rain falls here in a year. 100% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 10.5° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 18 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Morete, Río Uvita). The nearest road is 5.6 km off, and the nearest settlement is 5.5 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.2 °C and +0% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — almost no tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall down 49% 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

100 hectares at Bahía Ballena of strongly rising land around 680 m. The ground reads 100% under canopy. Water shapes it — 6,523 mm of rain a year, 18 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Uvita, 5.52 km away. It stands inside the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta connectivity network (screening extent — confirm against SINAC, the national conservation agency).

Its vocationprotect

Protect the keystone; hold the connection open. With 100% tree cover inside a declared biological corridor and a conservation priority of 86, the leverage here is protection: secure the core so the connection it anchors stays open.

680 m elevation100% forest10.5° slope6,523 mm rain/yrKeystone tier — secure now

Its trajectoryholding, but drying— the canopy has held while the rain record fell -48.9%.

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 · official, from a public or state record · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page.

The forest here has held for a generation.

recordedThis canopy has held: 97% cover in 2000, 0.1% 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

The water here is thinning.

observedThe twenty-year rain record moved -48.9% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
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.

observed18 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

The network needs this land more than its own body suggests.

derivedThe Land Score reads 54, but conservation priority reads 86 — a 32-point gap.
officialIts position in the corridor network does work its standalone condition does not show.

What to doValue this land by what it connects, not only what it contains — the leverage is in its position.

Bears on the corridor network · medium confidence

For its kind of land, its water is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 34 readings of like land (Subtropical · Neotropic), this parcel's water ranks in the bottom 10%.
derivedAn unusual weakness is rarely bad luck — something specific happened or is happening here that its peers escaped.

What to doMake water 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

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

100% tree cover on 6,523 mm of rain; 0.1% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2011.

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 5.6 km, settlement 5.5 km; 0.1% 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 100-hectare parcel near Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital, scoring 54 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 49% lower over 20 years (2004–2024) — outside the range the engine treats as dependable.

Riskhigh confidence

The terrain is steep, which constrains construction and raises erosion risk.

Steep slopes increase building and road costs, limit machinery access, and make the land more prone to erosion and landslides.

Mean slope 11°, with 251 m of elevation change across the parcel.

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.

100% of the parcel reads as tree cover (satellite land-cover mapping). Naturalness is not verified.

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: +1.2 °C mean temperature, +0% 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.

6,523 mm of rain per year. Nearest mapped watercourse is about 1.74 km away.

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

Soillow confidence

No satellite soil data is available for this parcel.

Soil quality cannot be assessed remotely here, so a ground survey is needed before any agricultural or restoration decision.

The SoilGrids survey returned no data for this location.

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 5.56 km to the nearest road, 5.52 km to Uvita.

Accessmedium confidence

Official Costa Rican record places this in Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas.

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

Jurisdiction: Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas. 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 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

86Conservation priority

KeystoneCore habitat

High-value corridor land to secure before it is lost.

high-value connectivity land to secure now

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.

Within the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta (screening) · Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA)

Inside the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta, this reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 86 out of 100 for conservation priority. It is a keystone: high-value connectivity land to secure now, before it turns over. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 75/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

75/100

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 Paso de la Danta (screening).

This is a declared biological corridor in Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA) — land inside it carries a national connectivity mandate and is where conservation capital compounds, joining protected areas rather than standing alone. The corridor links Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills, Parque Nacional Marino Ballena, Costa Ballena.

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 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.

100% 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 75/100, drawing on standing forest, protected land alongside, relief for views. 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 — baird's-tapir connectivity from the coastal ridge down to the Ballena coast at Uvita and Dominical.

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

31stpercentile · Subtropical · Neotropic

Ranked against 34 readings · same thermal belt

31st percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

About typical for the 34 readings logged in Subtropical · Neotropic. Climate resilience is its strongest signal here (82nd percentile), water its weakest (10th). Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the east.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

10th

Ecology

56th

Climate

82nd

Low pressure

75th

Landscape · 9 readings within 38 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

21.3°C

Mean temp

+1.2°C

2050 Δ temp

+0%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · Moderate

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 0% 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

6,523mm/yr

Rainfall

-48.9%

20-yr trend

1.7km

To watercourse

Río Morete · Río Uvita · Río Ballena · Quebrada Ceibo

Soil · 0–30 cm

Source unavailable for this parcel.

Terrain & cover

680m

Elevation

10.5°

Mean slope

100%

Forest

Built

Tree cover 100%

The living surface

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

Ecology

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Alouatta palliata · Bubulcus ibis

Pressure

5.6km

To road

5.5km

To settlement

Uvita

Forest history · since 2000

97%

Tree cover 2000

0.1%

Cover lost

2011

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

Within

Corridor

screening extent

Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA)

Conservation area

Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta

Baird's-tapir connectivity from the coastal ridge down to the Ballena coast at Uvita and Dominical.

Connects · Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills · Parque Nacional Marino Ballena · Costa Ballena

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

See the corridor network →

Costa Rica land record

Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas

Jurisdiction

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

Best-fit regenerative model

Corridor anchor reserve

86 / 100 fit

Protect the keystone; hold the connection open.

With 100% tree cover inside a declared biological corridor and a conservation priority of 86, the leverage here is protection: secure the core so the connection it anchors stays open.

High-value habitat inside the connectivity network. The move is to secure it — purchase or easement — so the corridor it anchors stays unbroken.

680 m elevation100% forest10.5° slope6,523 mm rain/yrinside a corridor

Also consider · Watershed protection (59) · Ecolodge / retreat (59)

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 (75/100) 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 roads and structures to the contour, and get a geotechnical and erosion assessment before any earthworks.
Before committing
Steep ground raises building and access costs and erosion risk; the terrain sets the layout, not the other way round.
Confirm on the ground · Have a geotechnical engineer assess slope stability and cut-and-fill on the ground before a road line is committed.
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
Commission a ground soil survey before any agricultural or restoration decision.
Before committing
Satellites cannot read soil biology, structure, or below-ground carbon — the very things that decide what will grow — and no survey data is available here.
Confirm on the ground · Take samples across the parcel for a lab test of organic carbon, texture, and pH, and dig a pit to read the profile and rooting depth.
05
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.

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.

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Sources & method · 10 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)

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

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

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

Generated Thu, 23 Jul 2026 06:07:02 GMT · 12.0s · synthesized by TERRA.