# ScanTerra

> Rural built environment and earth sciences. Drone and geodetic GNSS land surveying, subdivision, property master planning and functional landscape design for rural property. Coverage across Chile: from precise ground data to a regenerative landscape.

## Pages on this site
- https://scanterra.cl/ — SCANTERRA — Ambiente construido y ciencias de la tierra [Español]
  Levantamiento con dron y GPS geodésico, aerofotogrametría, diseño predial y paisajismo funcional para el mundo rural. Cobertura en todo Chile.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/en/ — SCANTERRA — Rural land surveying and site planning in Chile [English]
  Drone and geodetic GNSS surveying, subdivision and regenerative master planning for rural property in Chile. Know what you are buying, then make it productive.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/en/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/levantamiento/ — Levantamiento con dron: la superficie real de tu terreno [Español]
  La superficie escriturada nunca ha coincidido con la real en nuestros levantamientos: hasta 20% de diferencia. Precisión centimétrica en 15 días hábiles.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/levantamiento/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/en/land-survey/ — Drone land survey in Chile: the real surface area of your land [English]
  The declared surface area has never matched the real one in our surveys: gaps of up to 20%. Centimetre precision, 15 working days, price published.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/en/land-survey/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/asesoria-medioambiental/ — Asesoría Medioambiental: cómo se recupera un terreno degradado [Español]
  Recuperación de ambientes degradados: diagnóstico de lo que se puede revertir, plan por etapas y ejecución. A veces la respuesta honesta es que no se puede.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/asesoria-medioambiental/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/en/environmental-advisory/ — Environmental Advisory: how degraded land recovers [English]
  Recovery of degraded environments: diagnosis of what can be reversed, a staged plan and the work itself. Sometimes the honest answer is that it cannot.
  Markdown version: https://scanterra.cl/en/environmental-advisory/index.md
- https://scanterra.cl/explorar/ — Nube de puntos navegable — ScanTerra [Español]
  Explora en tu navegador una nube de puntos real levantada con dron por ScanTerra: 15 millones de puntos con color fotogramétrico.
- https://scanterra.cl/en/explorar/ — Navigable point cloud — ScanTerra [English]
  Explore a real point cloud in your browser, captured by drone by ScanTerra: 15 million points in true photographic colour.

## This same document in other languages
- Español: https://scanterra.cl/llms.txt

## What we do: one process, three linked stages
A method we have refined over more than thirty projects, in three linked stages. Each one moves from accurate data to a considered proposal, and from that proposal to work on the ground — without ever losing sight of the site as a whole.
- **Survey (Assessment):** Before you decide, you need to know what the land actually holds: we measure surface area, slopes, water and access. The title deed and the ground do not always say the same thing. Related services: Aerial photogrammetry, Geodetic GNSS, Digital terrain models.
- **Design (Proposal):** Where the house sits, where the road comes in and how the water runs are settled once. We zone the uses of the property so that choice rests on evidence rather than on what is left over. Related services: Subdivision and lotting, Property design and general planning, Firescaping, Functional landscaping.
- **Build (Delivery):** A plan is not enough on its own. We stake the layout on the ground, correct what the terrain demands, and carry out the works. Take this stage whole, or only the part you need. Related services: Setting out and corrections, Boundaries and living fences, Bio-filters and bio-ponds.

## Public demonstration: navigable point cloud
This is how we model a site: a three-dimensional record you can measure and move through, which lets us design together even when you are on the other side of the world. It is one of our own surveys, open for you to explore in your browser. It is a verifiable sample of what a survey actually delivers, not a generic demo.
- https://scanterra.cl/en/explorar/
- 15M — points
- RGB — true colour
- 3D — in your browser

## Approach: functional landscape design
It is a kind of landscaping that works functionally, holding a conversation — sometimes an argument — between what gets built and the natural space. In short, it is the right relationship between natural geography and human geometry, at a scale a person can inhabit, in a place that is not only beautiful but productive, protective and regenerative. In practice it means every decision is justified by more than one reason. A hedge is not only there to look well: it breaks the wind, marks a limit and, if the species is chosen with judgement, it is not fuel.
- **:** We get there by drawing on at least these four disciplines. Landscape design. Composing space as it is perceived and experienced day to day. Agroecology. Soil productivity kept in balance with the wider ecosystem. Permaculture. Systems designed to sustain and regenerate themselves over time. Firescaping. Landscape designed to reduce wildfire risk. None rules the others. What makes a project functional is that all four are on the table when it is decided what gets planted and where.
- **The planting palette is counted:** The proposal arrives with the species defined and counted, not merely described along with their traits and management. From that come a preliminary budget, a work plan and a support programme that can be set out by stage and by season. A planting drawing without those definitions is a picture. With quantities it is something you can price, build in parts and even postpone without losing the whole.

## Wildfire protection (firescaping, defensible space)
Where forest meets housing, badly placed vegetation is simply fuel. We design the ground around your house to slow the fire down and buy you a critical margin to react — without giving up a landscape that is beautiful, alive and productive.
- **Defensible space:** Rings of cleared and managed ground around the house that break the continuity of fuel and give you room to react when a fire comes.
- **Low-flammability planting:** Fire-resistant, low-resin species in the zones closest to the house, with shrubs and trees spaced further out according to each ring.
- **Vegetation management:** Pruning, thinning and spacing that cut the "fire ladder" between ground level, the shrub layer and the tree canopy.
- Built example: Jardín en Fuga. Master planning and landscape design for a forest retreat: drone survey, a design set out on the real terrain, and a garden of fire-resistant flowering plants arranged in safety rings — a landscape that protects the house and settles into the native woodland.

On wording: wildfire risk is reduced or mitigated; no design removes it entirely.

## Services: two scales
For a kind of rural development that carries real risk on one side — terrain, water, wildfire, permitting — and sits in a specific and irreversible market on the other. We plan the property from the overall vision down to each detail.
- **Subdivision and lot layout** (01 · Whole-site scale): Lot layout: the site as a whole; Access, utilities and waste routing; Reforestation: rural tree cover and transition woodland; Areas for conservation, remediation and regeneration.
- **Agri-residential parcel** (02 · Single-parcel scale): Property master planning and landscape design; Zoning and land use; Planting palette and preliminary budget; Work programme and priority support.

## Method
A participatory design process run with the people who will use the property, with site visits and sign-off at every stage. You design it with us — and if you are abroad, the 3D survey means you can take part without flying down for each step.
- **Phase 1 — Existing conditions and assessment:** Defining the brief, visiting the site, reading its ecology and existing features, running the aerial survey of current conditions and gathering your requirements.
- **Phase 2 — Property master plan:** A draft zoning and land use proposal, a working session with participatory design, and agreement on what is approved, questioned or changed.
- **Phase 3 — Functional landscape proposal:** Specifying and quantifying the planting palette, the design and its preliminary budget, and handing over the work programme and support plan.

What you end up holding: Property master plan drawing, Landscape plan drawing, Preliminary budget, Work programme, Ongoing support plan.

## Team
We are a cross-disciplinary team working on the transformation and renewal of the rural built environment, with a focus on deliberate, participatory planning that leaves the land better than it was. We bring extensive professional experience across both the public and private sectors, built up mainly in central and south-central Chile.
- **Fernando Montoya Giordano** — Urban planning architect and landscape designer · Design and drawings. Over 30 years in professional practice as an urban planning architect and landscape designer, and a university lecturer. Leads property master planning and landscape design, and handles sponsorship of projects before the Chilean permitting authorities.
- **Rodrigo Garrido Bonilla** — Aerial survey, geospatial data and AI · Drone and geodetic GNSS. Over 10 years in drone and geodetic GNSS surveying and thirty modelling data. Specialises in aerial photogrammetry, digital terrain models and in applied artificial intelligence for the analysis of that information.
- **Erick Fernández Galleguillos** — Landscape designer and consultant · Land planning and regenerative landscapes. Over 20 years in ecological restoration and regenerative landscape work. He runs a native plant nursery and works on land planning, agroecological transition and low water consumption green space design.
- **Santiago Pinedo Icaza** — Lawyer · Environmental law and socio-environmental disputes. Lawyer specialising in environmental law and in managing and mediating socio-environmental disputes. He checks that the property title holds up what the project intends to do with the land.
- 30+ projects across surveying, subdivision and landscape design, delivered in both the public and private sectors and signed off by a licensed professional.

## Client testimonials
Published with their authors' permission and translated from the Spanish originals. Check them on our Google listing: https://share.google/LRdjYgI3bfUlfO0L4
- **Claudia** (Survey and subdivision proposal): "Scanterra did the survey and a subdivision proposal for a piece of land, and they were thoroughly professional in everything."
- **David** (Land survey of a coastal property): "Topographic survey, coastal land, good service, good price, and a fast, professional response."
- **Al** (Survey and site planning for a rural plot): "They did the survey and the site design for a plot we had bought without the faintest idea of where to start. What helped us most was understanding where it made sense to build before spending on anything. They explain everything, and you make the decisions along with them."
- **Serge** (Survey for a buyer living outside Chile): "I bought a property in Chile while living abroad, which sounds straightforward until you realise you cannot simply go and look at it. ScanTerra carried out the topographic survey and sent me everything in a form I could understand from a distance. What I valued most was being able to make decisions on real information rather than a handful of photographs. They were clear in their communication and they met their deadlines."

## Contact
- Email: contacto@scanterra.cl
- Phone: +56 9 9817 0144
- Coverage: All of Chile — from the northern mining regions to Patagonia
- Registered name: Scanterra SPA. Service-area business: work happens on site, with no premises open to the public.
- Office hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00
- Booking: A call can be booked directly on the site, through Google Calendar.