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Shaded-relief view of the land around Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

100 ha inside the gold line

500 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province

100 ha · 10.454, -84.008 · Costa Rica

57out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

The capacity is present; the work is regeneration.

42nd percentile for like land · Corridor tier · 86 conservation priority

Water: 100
Soil: not read
Ecology: 49
Climate: 59
Pressure: 12

8 of 13 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 Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 57 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.

The risks that most shape a decision here: 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: 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 flat. Flat ground is easy to build on, farm, and mechanize, though low flat land can drain poorly and should be checked for waterlogging. 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. 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. 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 a watercourse runs through the parcel.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia 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

57out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

The capacity is present; the work is regeneration.

Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

42nd percentile for like land · Corridor tier · 86 conservation priority

Four of five readings

Water100

Soil—

Ecology49

Climate59

Pressure12

Weakest: PressureNot 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

42ndpercentile

Tropical humid · Neotropic · against 26 readings · 40th of all 100

Coverage

80%

weight read

8 of 13 layers answered

Nearly complete — gaps reweighted, not guessed.

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

Where the capital goes

86/ 100 priority

Corridorhospitality fit 63

Best-fit model

Coastal buffer · blue–green

52 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

100ha

Elevation

43m

36–55 m

Slope

1.5°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

43%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

3,619mm/yr

-2% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+0.9°C

rain +14%

Soil carbon

not read

Nearest road

0.1km

Species records

37,677records

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 3,619 mm of rain falls here in a year. 43% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (1.5° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 19 mapped watercourses cross the land (Rio Puerto Viejo, Quebrada Grande). 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 +0.9 °C and +14% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — 3.7% of the tree cover lost since 2000.

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

100 hectares at Puerto Viejo of gentle land around 43 m. The ground reads 43% under canopy, 29% built. Water shapes it — 3,619 mm of rain a year, 19 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Puerto Viejo, 0 km away. It stands inside the Corredor Biológico San Juan–La Selva connectivity network (screening extent — confirm against SINAC, the national conservation agency).

Its vocationbuffer

Protect the blue–green edge. Low-lying at 43 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.

43 m elevation43% forest29% built1.5° slopeCorridor tier — restoration compounds here

Its trajectoryholding— the canopy record shows no meaningful loss in a generation.

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: 35% cover in 2000, 3.7% 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 rain record and the rain model point in different directions.

observedThe twenty-year archive moved -2% — a mild observed drying.
estimatedThe 2050 projection says +14% — a strongly wetter future.
derivedNeither cancels the other: the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope — storage for the drying record, drainage for the wet projection.

What to doSize water systems for both ends of the envelope: weight the archive for the next decade, the model for the 2040s, and verify against local records.

Bears on any plan that depends on rain · medium confidence

Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.

observed19 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 57, but conservation priority reads 86 — a 29-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 calm (low pressure) is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 26 readings of like land (Tropical humid · Neotropic), this parcel's calm (low pressure) ranks in the bottom 6%.
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

The road that serves this land also exposes it.

observedA road passes 0.08 km from the parcel — access is cheap.
officialThe parcel does connectivity work inside Corredor Biológico San Juan–La Selva — and roads are where corridor edges fray first.
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

43% tree cover on 3,619 mm of rain; 3.7% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2014.

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

holding

57% open ground on a 1.5° 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 0.1 km, settlement 0 km; 3.7% 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 100-hectare parcel near Puerto Viejo, Sarapiquí, Heredia Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 57 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that this area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050. Its main strength is that a watercourse runs through the parcel. The first move: design to the 2050 climate projections rather than today's conditions.

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: +0.9 °C mean temperature, +14% rainfall. Exposure rated High.

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 (Rio Puerto Viejo).

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.

3,619 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel.

Terrainhigh confidence

The land is flat.

Flat ground is easy to build on, farm, and mechanize, though low flat land can drain poorly and should be checked for waterlogging.

Mean elevation 43 m, mean slope 2°, 19 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.

37,677 biodiversity records nearby, including Pitangus sulphuratus and Ramphocelus passerinii (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

Road and town access are close.

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

About 0.08 km to the nearest road, 0 km to Puerto Viejo.

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

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 a watercourse runs through the parcel.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

86Conservation priority

CorridorStepping stone

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.

Within the Corredor Biológico San Juan–La Selva (screening) · Área de Conservación Huetar Norte (ACAHN)

Inside the Corredor Biológico San Juan–La Selva, this reads as a partial patch that extends the network's reach, scoring 86 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 63/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

63/100

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 San Juan–La Selva (screening).

This is a declared biological corridor in Área de Conservación Huetar Norte (ACAHN) — land inside it carries a national connectivity mandate and is where conservation capital compounds, joining protected areas rather than standing alone. The corridor links Estación Biológica La Selva, Refugio Maquenque, Río San Juan (Indio-Maíz, Nicaragua).

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 partial patch — enhancing it extends the network's reach.

A partly-forested parcel beside the corridor works as a stepping stone: thickening its cover and connecting it to the neighbours widens the habitat that species can actually move through.

43% 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 63/100, drawing on standing forest, protected land alongside, water on site. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.

Capital moves

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.
02
Thicken cover along the parcel's edges and watercourses to widen what species can move through.
First year
As a stepping stone or buffer, the parcel's contribution is its edges and riparian strips — the parts that link to the habitat next door.
Confirm on the ground · With an ecologist, identify the connecting strips worth planting first; confirm which watercourses cross the land at the end of the dry season.
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 — the northern-lowlands corridor for the great green macaw, linking Braulio Carrillo's forests to the binational San Juan basin.

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

42ndpercentile · Tropical humid · Neotropic

Ranked against 26 readings · same bioclimate zone

40th percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

About typical for the 26 readings logged in Tropical humid · Neotropic. Climate resilience is its strongest signal here (71st percentile), development pressure its weakest (6th). Land reads stronger toward the south-east.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

65th

Ecology

46th

Climate

71st

Low pressure

6th

Landscape · 5 readings within 60 km

·Land reads stronger toward the south-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

24.2°C

Mean temp

+0.9°C

2050 Δ temp

+14%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · High

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 0.9°C warmer than today's, with 14% 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

3,619mm/yr

Rainfall

-2.0%

20-yr trend

On site

To watercourse

Permanent water

2% seasonal

Rio Puerto Viejo · Quebrada Grande · Quebrada · Río Sarapiquí

A watercourse on site and 0% permanent water are both true: the satellite archive counts open water wide enough to see from orbit, and a narrow or tree-covered channel runs below its 30 m pixels.

Soil · 0–30 cm

Source unavailable for this parcel.

Terrain & cover

43m

Elevation

1.5°

Mean slope

43%

Forest

29%

Built

Tree cover 43%Built-up 29%Grassland 25%Water 2%Bare / sparse 1%

The living surface

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

Ecology

37,677

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Pitangus sulphuratus · Ramphocelus passerinii · Coragyps atratus · Turdus grayi

Pressure

0.1km

To road

0.0km

To settlement

Puerto Viejo

Forest history · since 2000

35%

Tree cover 2000

3.7%

Cover lost

2014

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 Huetar Norte (ACAHN)

Conservation area

Corredor Biológico San Juan–La Selva

The northern-lowlands corridor for the great green macaw, linking Braulio Carrillo's forests to the binational San Juan basin.

Connects · Estación Biológica La Selva · Refugio Maquenque · Río San Juan (Indio-Maíz, Nicaragua)

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

See the corridor network →

Best-fit regenerative model

Coastal buffer · blue–green

52 / 100 fit

Protect the blue–green edge.

Low-lying at 43 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.

Low-lying coastal or wetland ground where mangrove, marsh, and dry forest meet the sea. Protect and restore the buffer — blue carbon, storm defence, nursery habitat.

43 m elevation43% forest29% built1.5° slope3,619 mm rain/yr

Also consider · Corridor anchor reserve (48) · Watershed protection (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 (63/100) is a different scale that asks only whether a small lodge could fund the stewardship here — the two need not match. Two theses share this ground: this lens reads its low wet edge — the buffer to restore; the deployment lens reads its standing patches — the stepping stones. One parcel holds both, so walk it to see which dominates, and let the first money follow that.

What to do

01
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.
02
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.
03
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

If the seasons here shift as the models expect, which of your intentions for the land still hold — and which need rethinking now?
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 · 8 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

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, 02 Jul 2026 07:41:55 GMT · 12.1s · synthesized by TERRA.