The Sensorial Choice Score

One number for what your land is doing to the body that lives on it.

We built the Sensorial Choice Score to answer a question nobody else asks about a property: what is the land actually doing to the body that lives on it? Most of what a landscape gets measured on — curb appeal, square footage, plant count — has nothing to do with that.

We read six channels — the pathways a place reaches a nervous system through: air, light, noise, thermal, nature, and microbiome. These aren't a list of features. A property's soil, water, planting, and shade are the inputs; the channels are how those inputs land on a body. The score runs 0 to 100, weighted toward the channels with the strongest evidence behind them.

That 0–100 number is a provisional way to talk about all six at once — a communication device, not a validated index. The science under each channel is real, but most of it is associational: these conditions are linked to how a body does, not a cure for anything. The Baseline is the target — the conditions a body needs to do well. Most built lots start a long way below it. A graded yard with a lawn and a fence isn't giving the body much, and the number says so.

Reading a property — air, light, noise, thermal, nature, microbiome

The Six Channels We Read

A channel is a pathway — the route a place takes to reach a body. Five carry real weight. The sixth is a candidate we're still testing, and we mark it that way.

01
0 – 20 · strong
Air
What is the body actually breathing out here?
What it reads

The air the body takes in — carbon dioxide and fine particulates, the PM2.5 that drifts off roads and combustion. This is the channel with the hardest science behind it.

Associated with

Cleaner air on a property is linked to sharper cognition and lower blood pressure. The evidence here is strong — not a claim that a yard treats anything, but a real, measured association.

What we do about it

We push the channel up with the inputs that move it: a canopy and dense planting that filter particulates and pull CO₂ down, set between the body and the road instead of an open run of lawn.

02
0 – 20 · strong
Light
Does the property track the sun, day and night?
What it reads

Daytime brightness and the spectrum of it — and, just as much, real darkness at night. A body keeps time by both. Indoor light and porch floods flatten the signal out.

Associated with

Light that follows the sun's arc is linked to steadier circadian rhythm, better sleep, and mood. Strong evidence sits under this one.

What we do about it

We open the property to morning light on the east side, hold shade on the brutal west, keep a spot under open sky, and cut the night-glow so darkness reads as darkness.

03
0 – 20 · strong
Noise
What does the property sound like to a body at rest?
What it reads

The sound environment — traffic and HVAC drone on one side, natural sound (moving water, birds, wind in the leaves) on the other. Most yards run on the first kind.

Associated with

Chronic noise is linked to cardiovascular strain and a body held in low-grade stress; natural sound shifts the nervous system the other way. The evidence here is strong.

What we do about it

We put real moving water on the property first — a recirculating channel, a bioswale that runs after rain — and plant a mass that softens road noise. You hear it before you see anything else.

04
0 – 15 · moderate
Thermal
Warm sun, deep shade — or one flat temperature?
What it reads

Temperature and how the air moves across the property. A body does better with a choice — warm sun, deep shade, the cool air near moving water — than with one flat temperature, which is what most lots offer in a Texas July.

Associated with

A range the body can move through is linked to comfort and easier thermal regulation. The evidence here is moderate, which is why it carries a lighter weight.

What we do about it

We build the range in: full sun, a shaded middle ground, and deep shade where moving water, planting, and air moving through actually drop the temperature.

05
0 – 15 · moderate
Nature
Is there real green in view, and within reach?
What it reads

Greenery, canopy, vegetation — how much living green the body can see and get to. A graded lawn behind a fence reads close to empty on this channel.

Associated with

Visible and reachable green is linked to lower stress, better wellbeing, and faster recovery. The evidence here is moderate — a real association, not a prescription.

What we do about it

We put green where the body lives: canopy over the spots people use, planting in the sightlines from inside, a loop worth walking instead of a flat run only crossed to mow it.

06
0 – 10 · candidate
Microbiome (candidate)
Is there living ground to put your hands in?
What it reads

Environmental biodiversity — the soil and plant life a body can actually touch. Living ground carries the microbes a body grew up alongside; a chemically treated lawn is close to sterile.

Associated with

Contact with a diverse environmental microbiome is linked to immune and mental-health pathways. This is emerging science — a candidate channel still under investigation, carried at the lightest weight and never treated as co-equal with the five above.

What we do about it

We build living ground back in: native soil you'd actually want to walk barefoot on, beds fed with compost, the kind of biodiversity where your hands end up in the dirt.

The Scale, Bottom to Baseline

The bands run from a bare lot at the bottom to the Baseline at the top. They describe the composite across all six channels — a provisional way to read the whole property at once, not a validated index. The Baseline isn't the best-case showpiece. It's the target — the floor of what a body needs the land to give it.

0 – 20
Sensory Desert
21 – 40
Minimal Activation
41 – 60
Functional
61 – 80
Optimized
81 – 100
Noon Baseline

See Where Your Land Stands

Drop your address and we'll read the six channels and put a number on it. The first read is $300, credited — free when you build.

Scientific foundation: the Sensorial Choice Score framework — Dégagé, D. (2026), DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21334937.