Public reading

Export full report →Open on the board →Read another →

Shaded-relief view of the land around La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

100 ha inside the gold line

500 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province

100 ha · 10.472, -84.644 · Costa Rica

52out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Real potential, once the plan is clear.

22nd percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 30 conservation priority

Water: 100
Soil: 55
Ecology: 41
Climate: 37
Pressure: 0

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 La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital. It scores 52 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. 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. Official Costa Rican record places this in La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela. 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 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 workable land whose plan must come before the capital. Its clearest strength to build from is that a watercourse runs through the parcel.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela 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

52out of 100 · Land ScoreCultivate

Real potential, once the plan is clear.

La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

22nd percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 30 conservation priority

Five readings

Water100

Soil55

Ecology41

Climate37

Pressure0

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

22ndpercentile

Subtropical · Neotropic · against 34 readings · 23rd 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

30/ 100 priority

Frontierhospitality fit 53

Best-fit model

Regenerative village

48 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

100ha

Elevation

253m

239–271 m

Slope

1.9°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

29%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

3,720mm/yr

+100% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+0.9°C

rain -29%

Soil carbon

28.7g/kg

pH 5.5

Nearest road

0.0km

Species records

35,224records

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 3,720 mm of rain falls here in a year. 29% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (1.9° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 52 mapped watercourses cross the land (Quebrada Habana, Quebrada Cacao). 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 -29% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — 1.7% of the tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall up 100% over twenty years.

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 La Fortuna of gentle land around 253 m. The ground reads 29% under canopy, 44% built. Water shapes it — 3,720 mm of rain a year, 52 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is La Fortuna, 0 km away.

Its vocationinhabit carefully

A community sited on the working matrix. Larger, accessible, and buildable near existing settlement, this matrix land has room for a regenerative community that keeps the habitat edges intact and restores the rest.

253 m elevation29% forest44% built1.9° slopeFrontier 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 · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · estimated, from a model, not a measurement · official, from a public or state record.

The forest here has held for a generation.

recordedThis canopy has held: 7% cover in 2000, 1.7% 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

Independent instruments agree: water stands on this land.

observedA watercourse crosses the parcel itself.
observedAnd the rain record has risen 99.9% in twenty years.
derived2 separate signals point the same way — this is not one sensor's opinion.

What to doSite anything permanent off the wet ground, and walk the parcel in the rainy season before believing any dry-season visit.

Bears on where anything gets built · high confidence

More water is arriving — and arriving harder.

observedThe twenty-year rain record moved +99.9% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
estimatedThe dry spells are lengthening at the same time (~13 → ~23 days) — more rain is arriving in stronger pulses with longer gaps, not as a gentler year.
derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved +99.9%, while the 2050 model says -29%. Neither cancels the other — the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope: drainage for the wet record, storage for the dry projection.

What to doKeep or restore cover on the slopes and size drainage for pulses, not averages; verify culverts and crossings in the wet season.

Bears on this land and the people downstream · medium confidence

Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.

observed52 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

Strong land, standing on its own.

derivedThe Land Score reads 52 against a conservation priority of 30.
derivedIts value is intrinsic rather than positional — the network does not depend on it, which frees what it can be.

What to doPlans here answer to the land itself, not to a network obligation.

Bears on what a plan owes the landscape · medium confidence

For its kind of land, its calm (low pressure) is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 34 readings of like land (Subtropical · Neotropic), this parcel's calm (low pressure) ranks in the bottom 4%.
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 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

29% tree cover on 3,720 mm of rain; 1.7% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2018.

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

71% open ground on a 1.9° average slope, 0% cropped.

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

holding

road 0 km, settlement 0 km; 1.7% 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 La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela Province is workable land whose plan must come before the capital, scoring 52 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, -29% 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 (Quebrada Habana).

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.

3,720 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel. The archive's 20-year trend reads about +100% — a swing that size deserves verification against local records before it informs any plan.

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 253 m, mean slope 2°, 32 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.

35,224 biodiversity records nearby, including Quiscalus mexicanus and Pitangus sulphuratus (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.

28.7 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, clay loam texture, pH 5.5 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

Accesshigh confidence

Road and town access are close.

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

About 0.04 km to the nearest road, 0 km to La Fortuna.

Accessmedium confidence

Official Costa Rican record places this in La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela.

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

Jurisdiction: La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela. 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 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 workable land whose plan must come before the capital. Its clearest strength to build from is that a watercourse runs through the parcel.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

30Conservation priority

FrontierWorking-land buffer

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 13 km · Área de Conservación Arenal-Tempisque (ACAT)

This reads as working land best held as a buffer, scoring 30 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 53/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

53/100

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 13 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 ~13 km. Extents are approximate — confirm against SINAC/PNCB.

Conservationmedium confidence

This reads as working land — its role is to buffer the core, not to be the core.

Land like this holds the corridor's edge: kept in low-impact use, it shields the intact habitat beside it from encroachment and gives the network room to breathe.

29% tree cover.

Hospitalitylow confidence

A modest hospitality layer is possible, but it is not the strongest card.

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 53/100, drawing on 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 — 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

22ndpercentile · Subtropical · Neotropic

Ranked against 34 readings · same thermal belt

23rd percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

Reads below most of the 34 readings logged in Subtropical · Neotropic — stronger than 22%. Water is its strongest signal here (73rd percentile), development pressure its weakest (4th). Land reads stronger toward the south-west.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

73rd

Soil

25th

Ecology

31st

Climate

15th

Low pressure

4th

Landscape · 9 readings within 40 km

·Land reads stronger toward the south-west

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

23.3°C

Mean temp

+0.9°C

2050 Δ temp

-29%

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 29% less 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

3,720mm/yr

Rainfall

+99.9%

20-yr trend

On site

To watercourse

Quebrada Habana · Quebrada Cacao · Río Burrito · Río Fortuna

Soil · 0–30 cm

28.7g/kg

Org. carbon

5.5

34%

Sand

35%

Clay

Clay loam

Terrain & cover

253m

Elevation

1.9°

Mean slope

29%

Forest

44%

Built

Built-up 44%Tree cover 29%Grassland 27%

The living surface

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

Ecology

35,224

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Quiscalus mexicanus · Pitangus sulphuratus · Turdus grayi · Thraupis episcopus

Pressure

0.0km

To road

0.0km

To settlement

La Fortuna

Forest history · since 2000

Tree cover 2000

1.7%

Cover lost

2018

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

~13 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

La Fortuna, San Carlos, Alajuela

Jurisdiction

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

Best-fit regenerative model

Regenerative village

48 / 100 fit

A community sited on the working matrix.

Larger, accessible, and buildable near existing settlement, this matrix land has room for a regenerative community that keeps the habitat edges intact and restores the rest.

Larger, accessible, buildable land near existing settlement — room for a regenerative community that leaves the habitat edges intact and restores the rest.

253 m elevation29% forest44% built1.9° slope3,720 mm rain/yr

Also consider · Watershed protection (43) · Regenerative agroforestry estate (40)

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 (53/100) 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
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
Confirm tenure and boundaries against the legal record before relying on this reading.
Before committing
The satellite record cannot see title, easements, or where the legal boundary actually runs — the things that govern what you can do here.
Confirm on the ground · Pull the title and cadastral record, and walk the boundary against it on the ground.
03
Confirm soil and water on the ground, then design to what the land can carry.
First visit
The land is workable, but the plan has to be built to its limits rather than around a hoped-for use.
Confirm on the ground · Ground-truth the key constraints before committing to a use, then size the plan to them.

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 · 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 Thu, 23 Jul 2026 06:24:38 GMT · 9.7s · synthesized by TERRA.