Public reading

Shaded-relief view of the land around Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold18,833 ha inside the gold line
5 km
Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province

18,833 ha · 9.730, -84.423 · Costa Rica

58out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Worth restoring — and worth the patience.

43rd percentile for like land · Buffer tier · 70 conservation priority

Water
61
Soil
51
Ecology
71
Climate
53
Pressure
54

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 18,833-hectare parcel near Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 58 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. 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: 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: 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 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. A count this size also reflects heavy survey effort — this is a well-watched landscape, so read it as well-documented rather than proportionally richer than its quieter neighbours. 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 Chires, Puriscal, San José. 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 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

Terrain · shaded relief — Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province
5 km
Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles
Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province
5 km
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

58out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Worth restoring — and worth the patience.

Mercedes Sur, Puriscal, San Jose Province

43rd percentile for like land · Buffer tier · 70 conservation priority

Five readings

Water61fair
Soil51fair
Ecology71strong
Climate53fair
Pressure54fair

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

43rdpercentile

Subtropical · Neotropic · against 34 readings · 43rd of all 100

Coverage

10 of 14 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

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

Where the capital goes

70/ 100 priority

Bufferhospitality fit 83

Best-fit model

Ecolodge / retreat

74 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area
18,833ha
Elevation
642m
79–1,595 m
Slope
6.6°
Buildable bench
not read
Forest cover
84%
Canopy height
not read
Rainfall
5,327mm/yr
-30% over 20 yr
Warming to 2050
+1.3°C
rain +13%
Soil carbon
30.6g/kg
pH 5.5
Nearest road
0.5km
Species records
52,558records
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 5,327 mm of rain falls here in a year. 84% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 6.6° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 111 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Parrita, Río Candelaría). The nearest road is 0.5 km off, and the nearest settlement is 8.3 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.3 °C and +13% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding4.4% of the tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall down 30% 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

18,833 hectares at Mercedes Sur of strongly rising land around 642 m. The ground reads 84% under canopy. Water shapes it — 5,327 mm of rain a year, 111 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Cristo Rey, 8.29 km away.

Its vocationinhabit carefully

Fund conservation through low-footprint hospitality. Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 83/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.

642 m elevation84% forest6.6° slope5,327 mm rain/yrBuffer tier — steward the edge
Its trajectoryholding, but dryingthe canopy has held while the rain record fell -29.6%.

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.

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, 13 Jul 2026 22:16:24 GMT · 12.1s · synthesized by TERRA.