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Shaded-relief view of the land around Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

100 ha inside the gold line

500 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste

100 ha · 9.992, -85.617 · Costa Rica

66out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

The land remembers what it was.

65th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 51 conservation priority

Water: 100
Soil: 47
Ecology: 50
Climate: 56
Pressure: 67

10 of 14 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 Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 66 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.

The risks that most shape a decision here: Dry spells are projected to run about 50 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.

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 wetter climate here by 2050. Expect a warmer and wetter future here; favour species and infrastructure that tolerate the projected range. The land is projected to see roughly 116 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 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. 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. 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. Official Costa Rican record places this in Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste. 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: 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 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 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

Terrain · shaded relief — Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste — 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

66out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

The land remembers what it was.

Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

65th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 51 conservation priority

Five readings

Water100

Soil47

Ecology50

Climate56

Pressure67

Weakest: Soil

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

Standing

65thpercentile

Tropical humid · Neotropic · against 26 readings · 67th of all 100

Coverage

100%

weight read

10 of 14 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

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

Where the capital goes

51/ 100 priority

Frontierhospitality fit 70

Best-fit model

Watershed protection

50 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

100ha

Elevation

100m

26–213 m

Slope

6.0°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

88%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

3,151mm/yr

-3% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+1.3°C

rain +1%

Soil carbon

24.0g/kg

pH 5.8

Nearest road

5.1km

Species records

18records

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 3,151 mm of rain falls here in a year. 88% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 6° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 71 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Montaña, Río Pilas Blancas (Seco)). The nearest road is 5.1 km off, and the nearest settlement is 4.1 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.3 °C and +1% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — 3.9% 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

100 hectares at Nosara of rolling land around 100 m. The ground reads 88% under canopy. Water shapes it — 3,151 mm of rain a year, 71 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Bocas de Nosara, 4.11 km away.

Its vocationprotect

Hold the water tower for everyone downstream. Steep (6.0°), wet (3,151 mm/yr), and river-laced, this parcel's highest value is the water and soil it keeps in place for everyone downstream.

100 m elevation88% forest6.0° slope3,151 mm rain/yrFrontier tier — outside the mapped network

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

The forest here has held for a generation.

recordedThis canopy has held: 62% cover in 2000, 3.9% 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

Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.

observed71 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

Heat is the trend to plan against here.

estimatedHot days head from ~83 to ~116 a year by 2050.
derivedThat reshapes what can be farmed, when work happens outdoors, and what shade and water infrastructure cost.

What to doShade, water, and heat-tolerant species are not upgrades here — they are the baseline design.

Bears on any plan with people or crops outdoors · 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

88% tree cover on 3,151 mm of rain; 3.9% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2015.

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 5.1 km, settlement 4.1 km; 3.9% 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 Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 66 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that dry spells are projected to run about 50 days by 2050. 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.

Riskmedium confidence

Dry spells are projected to run about 50 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.

Longest yearly run of days under 1 mm of rain projected near 50 days longer than today's 31-day spell (Open-Meteo daily climate).

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.

88% 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 Montaña).

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: +1.3 °C mean temperature, +1% rainfall. Exposure rated Moderate.

Climatemedium confidence

The land is projected to see roughly 116 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.

About 116 days a year with a daily high of 32 °C or more by the 2050 horizon up from about 83 today (Open-Meteo daily climate).

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.

3,151 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 100 m, mean slope 6°, 187 m of relief.

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 18 biodiversity records nearby (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.

24 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, clay loam texture, pH 5.8 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

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 5.08 km to the nearest road, 4.11 km to Bocas de Nosara.

Accessmedium confidence

Official Costa Rican record places this in Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste.

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

Jurisdiction: Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste. 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

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 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 land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. Its clearest strength to build from is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

51Conservation 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 Pájaro Campana, about 62 km · Área de Conservación Arenal-Tempisque (ACAT)

This reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 51 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 70/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

70/100

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 Pájaro Campana, about 62 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 Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde, Golfo de Nicoya.

Nearest PNCB screening extent ~62 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.

88% 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 70/100, 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 — an altitudinal corridor carrying the three-wattled bellbird's migration from the Monteverde cloud forest down to the Gulf of Nicoya mangroves.

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

65thpercentile · Tropical humid · Neotropic

Ranked against 26 readings · same bioclimate zone

67th 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. Water is its strongest signal here (65th percentile), soil its weakest (33rd). Land reads weaker toward the south-east.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

65th

Soil

33rd

Ecology

52nd

Climate

63rd

Low pressure

40th

Landscape · 4 readings within 43 km

·Land reads weaker 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

26.6°C

Mean temp

+1.3°C

2050 Δ temp

+1%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · Moderate

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.3°C warmer than today's, with 1% 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

3,151mm/yr

Rainfall

-2.5%

20-yr trend

On site

To watercourse

Río Montaña · Río Pilas Blancas (Seco) · Río Nosara · Quebrada Agua Fresca

Soil · 0–30 cm

24.0g/kg

Org. carbon

5.8

33%

Sand

38%

Clay

Clay loam

Terrain & cover

100m

Elevation

6.0°

Mean slope

88%

Forest

Built

Tree cover 88%Grassland 10%Bare / sparse 2%

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

Crypturellus cinnamomeus · Campephilus guatemalensis · Pitangus sulphuratus · Myiozetetes similis

Pressure

5.1km

To road

4.1km

To settlement

Bocas de Nosara

Forest history · since 2000

62%

Tree cover 2000

3.9%

Cover lost

2015

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

~62 km away

Área de Conservación Arenal-Tempisque (ACAT)

Conservation area

Corredor Biológico Pájaro Campana

An altitudinal corridor carrying the three-wattled bellbird's migration from the Monteverde cloud forest down to the Gulf of Nicoya mangroves.

Connects · Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde · Golfo de Nicoya

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

See the corridor network →

Costa Rica land record

Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste

Jurisdiction

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

Best-fit regenerative model

Watershed protection

50 / 100 fit

Hold the water tower for everyone downstream.

Steep (6.0°), wet (3,151 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.

100 m elevation88% forest6.0° slope3,151 mm rain/yrcorridor ~62 km

Also consider · Corridor anchor reserve (48) · Ecolodge / retreat (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 (70/100) 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
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.
03
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.
04
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

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 · 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)

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, 20 Jul 2026 05:20:48 GMT · 12.1s · synthesized by TERRA.