Site, Climate & Land Assessment
Read a piece of land - climate, topography, hydrology, soils, vegetation, solar access - and document it in a form a design team can build from. Includes New Mexico water rights and acequia obligations.
What you will be able to do
- Run a full six-domain site assessment and record it usably
- Establish whether a site has the water rights to support what is proposed
- Identify acequia easements and the obligations that come with them
- Place a building from what the land tells you rather than from the plat
Syllabus
6 parts · 19 lessons · 159 assessed questions · about 5 hours
Part A CLIMATE
- 1Climate, Weather and Microclimate11 min · 6 q
- 2Temperature and Degree Days12 min · 6 q
- 3Precipitation, Solar Radiation and Wind18 min · 9 q
- 4Building the Climate Picture13 min · 7 q
Part B THE PHYSICAL SITE
- 5Topographic Analysis16 min · 8 q
- 6Hydrological Analysis15 min · 8 q
- 7Soil Analysis15 min · 7 q
- 8Vegetation and Ecological Survey15 min · 8 q
Part C WATER RIGHTS AND ACEQUIAS
- 9Prior Appropriation - the System You Are In15 min · 8 q
- 10Domestic Wells and Rainwater Harvesting18 min · 9 q
- 11Acequias - What They Are19 min · 10 q
- 12Acequias - Working With Them18 min · 9 q
Part D SOLAR ACCESS AND SITE LAYOUT
- 13The Solar Access Survey18 min · 9 q
- 14Types of Site and Site Selection Factors18 min · 9 q
- 15Stormwater and Site Drainage17 min · 9 q
Part E EARTHWORKS
- 16Slow, Spread, Sink15 min · 8 q
- 17Swales18 min · 9 q
- 18Berms, Mounds and Ponds20 min · 10 q
Part F DOCUMENTATION
- 19Documenting the Site20 min · 10 q
Ref Appendices
- A1Field Test Methods
- A2Climate Data Sources
- A3Water Rights Checklist - New Mexico
- A4Site Analysis Checklist
Before you start
None - this is the first course in the Level 1 sequence
About this course
Course competency
On completing this course you can read a piece of land - its climate, topography, hydrology, soils, vegetation and solar access - document what you find in a form a design team can use, establish whether the site has the water rights to support what is proposed, identify acequia easements and obligations, and place a building and its earthworks so they work with the land rather than against it.
Why this course is first
Every decision in every other course in this curriculum depends on a piece of land.
Course 5 orients a building to the sun - but only if the site has winter solar access. Course 8 catches and stores water - but only if the rainfall is there and the law permits it. Course 4 builds walls out of site soil - but only if the soil has clay in it. Course 3's tire wall is its own foundation - but only on undisturbed, organic-free ground that drains.
A site is not a blank canvas. It is a complex, living system with its own history, its own flows, its own strengths and constraints.
The land has been shaped by geology and climate over millions of years. Vegetation, water, soil and wind have found their equilibria. Human activity has modified or disrupted those equilibria in ways that are often invisible until they reveal themselves in a flooded foundation, a failed crop, or an energy system performing far below design expectations.
The purpose of site analysis is to understand a piece of land thoroughly enough to design with it rather than against it.
Site analysis is not a luxury or an academic exercise. It is the most cost-effective investment in a building project - and almost the only one that cannot be made later.
What this course does not do
It does not give you a scorecard.
Pangea has no fixed go/no-go criteria - no minimum acreage, no maximum slope, no disqualifying list. Every site is judged on its own terms, and factors trade against each other differently on every project. A site with poor soil but excellent water may be better than the reverse. A steep site with perfect solar access may beat a flat one in shadow.
So this course teaches you the factors and how to read them. It does not pretend there is an arithmetic that decides. The judgment is the skill, and it is built by looking at many sites carefully.
Course structure
| Part | Lessons | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1-4 | Climate: what to gather and what each figure decides |
| B | 5-8 | The physical site: topography, hydrology, soils, vegetation |
| C | 9-12 | Water rights and acequias - the legal gate |
| D | 13-15 | Solar access and site layout |
| E | 16-18 | Earthworks: slow, spread, sink |
| F | 19 | Documenting the site |
| - | A1-A4 | Appendices: field tests, climate sources, water rights checklist, site analysis checklist |