Land Analysis Glossary

Parcel: A legally defined piece of land identified by the county assessor with a unique parcel ID (sometimes called APN or PIN). It's the basic unit of analysis in a LandWise report — boundaries, ownership, acreage, and assessed value all hang off the parcel record.
Flood Zone: A FEMA designation describing the flood risk for a given area, published in the National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL). Zones AE, A, and VE are inside the regulatory floodplain (Special Flood Hazard Area) and trigger flood-insurance requirements for federally backed mortgages. Zone X is outside the high-risk floodplain.
Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA): The 1% annual chance floodplain — the "100-year flood" zone. Properties inside the SFHA face mandatory flood insurance under federally backed loans and are subject to local floodplain development ordinances.
Base Flood Elevation (BFE): The elevation that flood waters are predicted to reach during the 1% annual chance flood event. New construction in the SFHA generally must be built at or above the BFE, often with a freeboard margin set by local code.
Wetlands: Land where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining soil and vegetation. Mapped nationally by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). Jurisdictional wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act and require permits to fill or alter.
Riparian Buffer: A vegetated zone along the edge of a stream, river, or wetland that filters runoff and protects water quality. Many counties enforce setback requirements that prevent building within a riparian buffer.
Slope (percent grade): The rise of the land surface over horizontal distance, expressed as a percentage. A 10% slope means 10 feet of vertical rise over 100 feet horizontal. Slopes above 15% generally drive up site-development costs; above 25% they may be unbuildable under local code without engineered foundations.
Perc Test (Percolation Test): A field test of how quickly water drains through soil at a candidate septic-system location. Most rural counties require a passing perc test before issuing a septic permit. LandWise estimates feasibility from SSURGO soil drainage class but cannot replace the on-site test.
Septic Feasibility: A screening estimate of whether a parcel can support a conventional septic system, based on soil drainage class, depth to water table, and slope. Soils classified as poorly drained or with shallow water tables typically fail and require alternative systems (mound, drip, or sand-filter).
SSURGO: USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database — the authoritative parcel-scale soils dataset for the United States. Provides soil map units with drainage class, hydric rating, depth to bedrock, and dozens of agronomic properties. LandWise's soil analysis pulls directly from SSURGO.
Hydric Soils: Soils that formed under conditions of saturation long enough to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper layers. A hydric rating in SSURGO is one of the three criteria used to identify a jurisdictional wetland.
Easement: A legal right for someone other than the owner to use a portion of the property — common types include utility easements (power lines, gas), access easements (driveway across a neighbor), and conservation easements (restrict development to preserve land). Easements run with the land and bind future owners.
Landlocked: A parcel with no legal access to a public road. Resolving a landlocked parcel typically requires negotiating an access easement with an adjacent owner or pursuing a court-ordered easement of necessity. LandWise flags parcels with no detected road frontage.
Mineral Rights: The ownership of the subsurface minerals (coal, oil, gas, limestone) beneath a parcel, which can be severed and sold separately from the surface estate. In much of the Southeast, surface and mineral estates are commonly split — a current owner of the surface may not own the minerals.
Setback: The minimum distance a structure must be set back from a property line, road right-of-way, or natural feature like a stream. Zoning ordinances specify front, side, and rear setbacks for each zoning district.
Zoning Overlay: A zoning district that layers additional restrictions on top of the base zoning — common examples include floodplain overlays, historic-preservation overlays, and hillside-protection overlays. Overlays do not replace the base zoning; they add to it.
R-1 / A-1 Zoning: R-1 typically denotes single-family residential zoning with the largest minimum lot size in the residential family. A-1 typically denotes agricultural zoning, which usually permits farming, single-family residences on large lots, and accessory agricultural buildings. Exact rules vary by county — check the local ordinance.
Conditional Use: A use that is allowed in a zoning district only with case-by-case approval from the planning commission or board of zoning appeals — often subject to conditions like buffer landscaping, traffic mitigation, or operating-hours limits.
Right-of-Way (ROW): The strip of land dedicated for a road, utility line, or railroad. The legal width of the ROW typically extends beyond the paved or maintained surface, which affects where structures, fences, and driveways can be placed.
Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL): The FCC's official unit for tracking broadband availability — a location where mass-market fixed broadband service is or can be installed. LandWise queries the FCC National Broadband Map to report which providers and technologies (fiber, cable, fixed wireless) are available at the parcel.