How scoring works
Every Landkeep score is a sum of named factors. Each factor records its raw value, weight, points, source, vintage, and confidence, and every parcel page shows the full table. Model version 0.1.0.
1. Who is eligible
Before anything is scored, a parcel is screened out if it is:
- under the minimum acreage (5 acres by default, adjustable; 0.5 acres in small urban mode);
- publicly owned, by owner type, land-use ownership code, or a public-body owner name;
- owned by a utility, railroad, or tribe;
- a park, school, cemetery, military site, or other public or managed place;
- already at least half protected (once a protected lands layer is loaded);
- mostly developed. Until land cover is loaded this uses the county land-use label and whether buildings are worth more than the land, and says so.
Every excluded parcel is counted with its reason, so nothing disappears silently.
2. Factor groups and weights
Factors fall into five groups. These are the default group weights; each template shifts the weights of factors within them, and the total is always out of 100.
Conservation value35%
Adjacent to protected land, State priority area, Natural heritage site, Wetland or water proximity, Floodplain and elevation, Working land use, Habitat connectivity, Acreage.
Threat and urgency20%
Land value pressure, Recent sale, Zoning development potential.
Owner propensity20%
Owner type, Absentee owner, Ownership tenure.
Feasibility15%
Acreage band, Road access, Buildings, Flood zone as constraint, Title complexity (proxy).
Leverage and funding10%
Priority funding category, Next to a funded project, Mitigation potential, State tax credit potential.
Owner factors use only what the record shows: owner type, whether the owner's mailing address is out of state, how long the land has been held, and signs of several owners. Landkeep never infers what an owner intends, and never shows owner names or addresses.
3. Adjacency to protected land
Land next to existing protected land is usually the strongest prospect, so adjacency multiplies the score instead of adding to it: ×1.3 if a parcel would close a gap between protected areas, ×1.2 if it touches protected land, and ×1.08 if it is within 250 meters.
4. Templates
- Water quality
- Riparian buffers, wetlands, and floodplain.
- Working land
- Agricultural and forestal use, acreage, and adjacency. Flood zone is a constraint.
- Habitat and connectivity
- Natural heritage sites, wetlands, corridors, and adjacency.
- Resilience and marsh migration
- Low elevation, flood zone, and wetland adjacency are conservation values. The Hampton Roads default.
5. Data sources, and what is loaded today
Parcels: landrecords.us parcel_us (parcel-standard v1.0.1).
| Layer | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Protected lands | Virginia Conservation Lands Database (DCR) | Not loaded yet |
| ConserveVirginia | DCR, via the Natural Heritage Data Explorer | Not loaded yet |
| Natural Heritage conservation sites | DCR Natural Heritage | Not loaded yet |
| VLCF grant awards | Virginia Land Conservation Foundation | Not loaded yet |
| Wetlands and streams | NWI (USFWS), NHD (USGS) | Not loaded yet |
| Land cover | Annual NLCD 1.1 (USGS) | Not loaded yet |
A factor whose layer is not loaded is recorded as unknown and scores zero. Scores are lower than they will be until these layers arrive, and every shortlist says which layers it used.
6. What a score is not
A Landkeep score is a screening signal. It is not a title search, appraisal, baseline report, IRS conservation purpose determination, or a substitute for a site visit, and nobody can pay to move a parcel up a list.