Public reading

Tepoztlán, Morelos, 62520

1 ha · 19.000, -99.053 · Mexico

250 m

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

The verdict

59/ 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Worth restoring — and worth the patience.

Tepoztlán, Morelos, 62520

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

60th percentile for like land · Frontier tier · 15 conservation priority

Five readings

Water93

Soil51

Ecology15

Climate40

Pressure98

weakest · Ecology

All five read on one axis — up is good. Pressure scores calm: a high number is little human pressure on this land.

Standing

60thpercentile

Neotropic · against 81 readings · 60th of all 85

Coverage

100%

weight read

14 of 21 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

Silent: the river and road trace, Sentinel-2, the radar +4.

Where the capital goes

15/ 100 priority

Frontierhospitality fit 42

Best-fit model

Upper-watershed research station

41 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

1.2ha

Elevation

1,957m

1,940–1,985 m

Slope

9.8°

Forest cover

31%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

2,688mm/yr

+36% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+1.7°C

rain -25%

Soil carbon

25.1g/kg

pH 6.2

Nearest road

not read

Species records

0GBIF

Headline figures only. Every card below carries the full reading, its source and its date; a figure the engine did not read is named, never filled in.

This place

1 hectares at Tepoztlán of gentle land around 1,957 m. The ground reads 31% under canopy. Water shapes it — 2,688 mm of rain a year. Governed from Tepoztlán.

Its vocationresearch

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold. At 1,957 m with 31% tree cover, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.

1,957 m elevation31% forest9.8° slope2,688 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 water’s position

What arrives here is decided upstream; what happens here is felt downstream. The map above can draw both.

Drains to this point

not read

Mapped path below

6.1 km

Hydrography

MERIT-Hydro ~90 m

Screening hydrography — never a legal drainage determination.

Who governs this land

México · Morelos · Tepoztlán

What the land is exposed to — and what stands against it

Earthquakewatchscreens mediumadaptation layer not read
Landslidewatchscreens mediumadaptation layer not read
Volcanowatchscreens highadaptation layer not read
Cyclonewatchscreens highadaptation layer not read
Wildfirewatchscreens highadaptation layer not read

Under high classes: 1 ha · 3 classes
Fire response: not read
Emergency response: not read

Exposure as quantities, never as money: response minutes assume 40 km/h on rural roads, straight-line distance. The district class covers the whole parcel, so hectares under a high class are the parcel's own area.

Screening classes at district scale (ThinkHazard/GFDRR, hazard sets ~2015–2020) read beside what OpenStreetMap has mapped within graded radii. Presence, not effectiveness: the condition of a levee or the crew of a fire station is not read. “Buffered” is not “safe”; “not read” is honest, not zero.

6 earthquakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M7.1 — most recent M5, 2025 (USGS).

What the record remembers

The named places and features the public encyclopedia holds around this land — the recorded memory, not the whole memory.

Santo Domingo Ocotitlán1.6 km
Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl2.9 km
Meztitla3.6 km
Meztitla Scout Camp School3.6 km
Santiago Tepetlapa (Morelos)4.5 km
San Juan Tlacotenco4.7 km
El Tepozteco5.1 km
Sierra de Tepoztlán5.1 km

15 recorded heritage features within 10 km, nearest 2–5 km — ruins, monument, archaeological site, memorial, monastery.

Locations are deliberately withheld — presence is shown at landscape scale only. Recorded presence in the open public record only. Absence of information here is not evidence of absence — national heritage registries are the authority.

Relationships

A parcel is a node in living systems, not an island. Each line below is derived from this reading itself and carries how it is known.

estimated
This parcel collects the water of Its watershed— screening hydrography (MERIT-Hydro ~90 m)
estimated
This parcel sends its water down Downstream flowpath6.1 km mapped below the parcel— screening hydrography (MERIT-Hydro ~90 m)
official
This parcel answers to Tepoztlán
official
Tepoztlán sits in Morelos
official
Morelos sits in México
recorded
This parcel carries the traces of Recorded heritage landscape15 recorded features within 10 km— public record only — absence is not evidence of absence
estimated
This parcel is screened as exposed to Volcanohigh (screening)— screening class at admin-division scale
estimated
This parcel is screened as exposed to Cyclonehigh (screening)— screening class at admin-division scale
estimated
This parcel is screened as exposed to Wildfirehigh (screening)— screening class at admin-division scale
official
This parcel stands on ground that has felt Seismic history6 quakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 yr
derived
This parcel is read against Neotropicp60 of 81 readings

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.

The forest here has held for a generation.

recordedThis canopy has held: 45% cover in 2000, 0% 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.

Lands on: the land's living value · confidence high

The weakest number here is a silence, not a judgment.

derivedThe ecology pillar reads 15 — but it leans on zero recorded wildlife observations, and absence of records usually reflects absence of surveys, not absence of life.
derivedTreat that pillar — and the composite it drags — as a floor: one field survey could move this reading materially, in only one direction.

What to doCommission a rapid biodiversity survey before treating the score as the land's ceiling.

Lands on: the score itself · confidence high

More water is arriving — and arriving harder.

observedThe twenty-year rain record moved +36.2% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
observedOn 9.8° average slope, pulsed rain becomes runoff energy — erosion and flash flow, not just supply.
estimatedThat energy leaves along a mapped 6.1 km downstream path — what this parcel's cover holds back, the people below never have to absorb.
derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved +36.2%, while the 2050 model says -25%. 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.

Lands on: this land and the people downstream · confidence medium

Strong land, standing on its own.

derivedThe Land Score reads 59 against a conservation priority of 15.
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.

Lands on: what a plan owes the landscape · confidence medium

For its kind of land, its ecology is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 81 readings of like land (Neotropic), this parcel's ecology ranks in the bottom 7%.
derivedAn unusual weakness is rarely bad luck — something specific happened or is happening here that its peers escaped.

What to doMake ecology the first diligence question on the ground: find the cause before pricing the land.

Lands on: what this land is, relative to its kind · confidence medium

Height is this land's climate insurance.

observedAt 1,957 m, today's mean sits at 17.1°C.
estimatedThe +1.7°C projected by 2050 arrives on that cool baseline — roughly 5 hot days a year here while lowland sites cross heat thresholds this parcel never reaches.
derivedAs the lowlands warm, land that stays temperate does double work: livable for people, refuge for species moving uphill.

What to doTreat elevation as an appreciating part of the asset — and design for the species arriving from below, not only the ones here now.

Lands on: the decades ahead · confidence medium

Reading the place

This 1-hectare parcel near Tepoztlán, Morelos, 62520 is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 59 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that this area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050. 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: +1.7 °C mean temperature, -25% rainfall. Exposure rated High.

Riskmedium confidence

Hazard screening rates this district high for volcano, cyclone, wildfire.

A high screening class means the hazard must be taken into account in planning and design — it is a division-scale flag from mixed-vintage hazard sets, not a site assessment. Commission local hazard mapping before siting anything permanent.

3 of 11 screened hazards rate high in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico (ThinkHazard/GFDRR, screening-grade).

Riskhigh confidence

This ground has a recorded seismic history.

Repeated strong earthquakes within reach shape how anything here should be built — seismic design codes, slope stability under shaking, and insurance all follow from it.

6 earthquakes ≥ M5 within 100 km in 50 years, strongest M7.1, most recent M5 in 2025 (USGS catalog).

Waterhigh confidence

Rainfall is high and supports rain-fed use.

There is enough water for most crops and forestry with little or no irrigation; dry-season storage still helps.

2,688 mm of rain per year. The archive's 20-year trend reads about +36% — a swing that size deserves verification against local records before it informs any plan.

Watermedium confidence

This parcel is a position in a watershed, not an island.

What arrives here is decided upstream, and what happens here is felt downstream — land use on this parcel is water stewardship for everyone below it. Read the upstream land uses before trusting the water, and count the downstream neighbours before changing it.

its own water runs 6.1 km downstream of it (MERIT-Hydro screening hydrography).

Terrainhigh confidence

The parcel sits at high elevation.

Higher ground is cooler, which changes crop suitability and can ease heat stress, but may add access and frost considerations.

Mean elevation 1,957 m, mean slope 10°, 45 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 0 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.

25.1 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, loam texture, pH 6.2 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

Accesslow confidence

Jurisdiction is part of the parcel.

Permits, zoning, water, and roads run through these offices — knowing who governs the land is the first step of every plan that touches it.

México · Morelos · Tepoztlán.

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.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

15Conservation priority

FrontierStepping stone

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.

This reads as a partial patch that extends the network's reach, scoring 15 out of 100 for conservation priority. It carries standalone value outside the mapped network — worth holding on its own terms.

42/100

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.

Conservationmedium confidence

This reads as a partial patch — enhancing it extends the network's reach.

A partly-forested parcel works as a stepping stone between the standing habitat around it: thickening its cover and connecting it to the neighbours widens the habitat that species can actually move through. No declared corridor is mapped here — the network in question is the nearby forest itself.

31% 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 42/100, drawing on the setting. 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 and cadastral record, and check what conservation-finance the jurisdiction offers before committing.
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
Set a wildlife baseline and re-read it — camera traps on the parcel's connecting edges.
Ongoing
Funders and partners judge conservation land by whether wildlife actually uses 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 and track movement between the parcel and the habitat beside it.

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.

How it compares

60thpercentile · Neotropic

Ranked against 81 readings · same region

60th percentile against all 85 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

About typical for the 81 readings logged in Neotropic. Freedom from development pressure is its strongest signal here (94th percentile), ecology its weakest (7th).

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

80th

Soil

31st

Ecology

7th

Climate

33rd

Low pressure

94th

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

17.1°C

Mean temp

+1.7°C

2050 Δ temp

-25%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · High

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.7°C warmer than today's, with 25% 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

2,688mm/yr

Rainfall

+36.2%

20-yr trend

—km

To watercourse

Soil · 0–30 cm

25.1g/kg

Org. carbon

6.2

48%

Sand

21%

Clay

Loam

Terrain & cover

1,957m

Elevation

9.8°

Mean slope

31%

Forest

Built

Shrubland 69%Tree cover 31%

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

Pressure

Source unavailable for this parcel.

Forest history · since 2000

45%

Tree cover 2000

0.0%

Cover lost

Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11

Best-fit regenerative model

Upper-watershed research station

41/100 fit

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold.

At 1,957 m with 31% tree cover, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.

Intact montane forest at the top of a watershed, rich enough to justify a small research-and-education presence that funds protection of the water tower below.

1,957 m elevation31% forest9.8° slope2,688 mm rain/yr

Also consider · Regenerative agroforestry estate (28) · Watershed protection (26)

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 (42/100) 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
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.
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 Gregorio

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 Gregorio

Sources & method · 14 layers→

Biodiversity — GBIF

Occurrence records (count + top species)

point · live

Mixed CC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-NC (per dataset)

Heritage presence — public record

Recorded historic/heritage features within 10 km — generalized to counts, classes and distance bands; never coordinates

landscape (10 km) · live

ODbL 1.0

Place memory — Wikipedia

Named places and features of the surrounding landscape (titles + distances)

article · live

CC BY-SA 4.0 (titles/facts)

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

Watershed — Global Watersheds (MERIT-Hydro)

Upstream basin + downstream flowpath (screening hydrography)

~90 m · MERIT-Hydro 2019

Open service, no warranty; engine open source (delineator)

Hazard screening — ThinkHazard!

Multi-hazard classes at admin-division scale (screening-grade; hazard sets ~2015–2020)

admin division · division report (mixed vintages)

GFDRR open (attribution)

Seismicity — USGS earthquake catalog

M ≥ 5 events within 100 km, past 50 years

event · live catalog

US public domain (cite USGS)

Governance — public map record + Wikidata

Administrative hierarchy + structured facts of the governing unit

admin unit · live / Atlas data year 2022

ODbL 1.0 / CC0 / PNUD-UCR publication (attribution)

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: the river and road trace, Sentinel-2, the radar, the infrastructure reach, the governance record, the thermal read, the population grid — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.

Generated Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:16:39 GMT · 17.1s · synthesized by TERRA.