Parcel TerrainGuide
Terrain analysis for a parcel
Terrain analysis turns a parcel’s elevation into the measurements that decide how land can be used: slope, aspect, drainage, and the buildable ground and access that follow from them. Done from bare-earth LiDAR, it reads the shape of the land itself rather than the forest on top of it.
Slope and aspect
Slope is calculated across the whole parcel and reported by class; aspect — the direction the ground faces — shapes sun and exposure. Together they frame where building, access, and growing are easiest.
Pads, access, and earthwork
The analysis finds candidate building pads, routes least-cost driveway corridors over the measured grade, and gives planning-level earthwork ranges — the order-of-magnitude dirt to make ground level and reachable.
Water and sun
Modeled drainage, pond and swale candidates, rainfall, and solar exposure screen a parcel’s water and energy picture, with published hazard and soils context shown beside the measurements and attributed to their sources.
How to evaluate land for development or a pre-offer screen
Screening land for development starts with the same measurements: mean slope, candidate pads, least-cost access, order-of-magnitude earthwork, and mapped flood and landslide context. A desk-level parcel feasibility read rules out the expensive sites before an offer or a site visit — the fast "should we even look at this one?" filter when comparing several parcels.
Keyline, swales, and water harvesting
Reading a parcel for water harvesting is a terrain problem. The analysis surfaces keyline and keypoint geometry, candidate swale lines on contour, pond candidates where draws flatten, rainfall, and winter-sun exposure — the inputs for where to put a swale or a pond and how to plan plantings, in the keyline tradition of P.A. Yeomans. It runs on any US parcel in minutes, every figure cited, with a report to order when a parcel earns a closer look.
Run the analysis on your parcel
Pick your parcel on the map and get a terrain report in minutes — buildable area, candidate house pads, driveway access, slope, water and solar, with every figure measured and cited.