Public reading
413 ha · 9.956, -85.669 · Costa Rica
Real upside, waiting on the work.
75th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 57 conservation priority
9 of 12 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, landsat_lst
The reading in full
This 413-hectare parcel near Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 71 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.
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: Models project a warmer and drier climate here by 2050. Expect a warmer and drier 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. 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: Read across the record, the land reads as stable: the canopy history shows no meaningful loss in a generation and the water signal is holding, which means the work is to build on a sound base rather than to reverse a decline. Of the land's core processes, the water cycle 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. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
The ground and its cover
The verdict, the five pillar readings, how much of the land was read, and the headline figures.
The verdict
Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste
75th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 57 conservation priority
Five readings
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
Tropical humid · Neotropic · against 26 readings · 76th of all 100
Coverage
9 of 12 layers answered
Every pillar read from live data.
Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the thermal read.
Where the capital goes
Frontierhospitality fit 76
Best-fit model
Ecolodge / retreat
Fit from published rules over the indicators.
The land in numbers
Headline figures. The Why tab carries each reading in full, with its source and its date. “Not read” means the source had nothing for this parcel: a gap is named, never filled with a guess.
How this land works
About 3,228 mm of rain falls here in a year. 91% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (2.5° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 98 mapped watercourses cross the land (Quebrada Cacao, Río Garza). A road runs against the boundary, and the nearest settlement is 3.1 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.2 °C and -2% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.
Holding — 4.6% of the tree cover lost since 2000.
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
413 hectares at Nosara of rolling land around 31 m. The ground reads 91% under canopy, 4% built. Water shapes it — 3,228 mm of rain a year, 98 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Bocas de Nosara, 3.14 km away.
Fund conservation through low-footprint hospitality. Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 76/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.
This is an outsider's reading, assembled from instruments and public records. It is where understanding begins, not where it ends — the land, its neighbours, and the people who know it hold the rest.
Overpass (waterways, highways, places, protected areas)
Occurrence records (count + top species)
Nominatim reverse geocode
Terrarium elevation tiles
Archive 2004–2024 + MPI-ESM1-2-XR to 2050
SoilGrids v2.0 (SOC, pH, sand, clay; 0–30 cm)
WorldCover 2021 v200
Global Surface Water v1.4 — occurrence & seasonality
Global Forest Change (tree cover 2000 + annual loss)
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 thermal read — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.
Generated Sat, 27 Jun 2026 04:41:47 GMT · 12.1s · synthesized by TERRA.