Every project begins with similar questions: Is this the right site? What is actually on the ground? Do I need to get feet on the ground?
Whether evaluating land for a commercial opportunity, planning a utility-scale solar farm, working in agriculture, or inspecting land you manage, answering that question has traditionally required significant capital and time. Project teams often spend weeks stitching together disconnected information, searching for location terrain information, and dispatching survey crews, only to discover concerning terrain grades, drainage problems, or zoning hurdles after the budget is spent.
Google Earth is launching a new suite of professional site analysis tools. Professionals now have access to point-and-click terrain analysis tools, including elevation contours, slope, aspect, and cut and fill, alongside detect change, an on-demand AI tool that reveals when and where change has occurred. These tools are available today on the Standard plan of Google Earth, with expanded access and capabilities in professional plans. For a full tutorial on how to use these tools for work, check out our new video.
Analysis in Google Earth does not replace on-site surveys. It is where the early work happens. Read the ground from your desk, bring real numbers into the first conversation, and send field crews where their time counts.
Here is how these capabilities might connect into an integrated, four-phase site assessment workflow.
Phase 1: Understand site history with detect change
A site can look completely clear on today's satellite imagery and still carry risk rooted in recent history. Was the land built on before? Has drainage or vegetation cover changed? Plus, the surrounding area matters just as much. Is the broader district expanding? Will nearby commercial developments, environmental shifts, or infrastructure projects change long-term viability?
Today, we are introducing detect change, an experimental tool in Google Earth on web that finds where and when change has occurred anywhere on Earth. Powered by Google's latest geospatial AI technology, the tool compares Earth observation data between any two annual intervals, generating a 10-meter resolution heatmap layer and fast tracking your work. Detect change is available today in Google Earth on web and Android for Standard plan users, with expanded capabilities available on professional plans.
Using detect change is as easy as four steps:
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Open the analysis tools and select detect change or activate from within historical imagery.
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See the preview heatmap or for more granular detail draw a polygon around your area of interest.
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Select your comparison years from the multi-year satellite catalog.
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Generate a high-resolution change heatmap that isolates where surface modifications have taken place.
The generated heatmap directs your focus straight to change across the area. From there, move into historical imagery for fine-grained inspection, and drop into historical Street View imagery to evaluate the site from the ground.
Urban Planner, Alejandra Macarena Tomietto tracks spatial expansion across decades in Google Earth, reading development patterns to anticipate service demands before finalizing municipal plans. As Tomietto explains:
"Google Earth helped us anticipate the future by showing real-world development patterns. By observing how these real-world patterns were developing, we could predict where the city was expanding and identify open spaces available for services. It turned a mountain of abstract geographic data into a clear, visual language that we could actually use to plan effectively."
Phase 2: Assess terrain feasibility with terrain analysis tools
With the site's history established, the focus turns to terrain. This dictates construction costs, drainage routing, and site preparation requirements.
Four dedicated terrain analysis tools visualize physical ground conditions directly on Google Earth's 3D canvas. Each one works the same way detect change does: draw your area, run the tool, read the result. These tools are available to all Google Earth users. Standard includes one layer generated by a tool each month. Each tool answers a different question about the same ground: how it rises and falls, how steep it is, which way it faces, and how much of it has to move. Professional plans include expanded access and capabilities when you need more tools, a larger site, or both.
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Elevation contours: Generate contour layers for your area at intervals down to 1m. Tightly clustered lines mark sharp elevation gain, and widely spaced lines confirm flat, workable ground. Tighten the interval where grading tolerances are tight.
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Slope: Generate a color-coded gradient overlay mapping surface steepness across the area. Identify non-buildable slopes, benchmark runoff risk zones, and isolate level building pads.
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Aspect: Calculate the compass orientation of every slope and its sun exposure. Architects, planners, and growers read the same orientation for building layout, drainage, snowmelt, and planting decisions.
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Cut and fill: Set a target base elevation plane across your area to calculate approximate soil volumes. Estimate net earthwork requirements (cut vs. fill) and balance grading costs before moving heavy equipment.
Geotechnical Civil Engineer, Alex Cuellar Díaz used Google Earth to assess terrain across 45 km² of rugged ground in Colombia. After three landslides along critical access roads suspended operations, he combined analysis techniques like elevation contours, slope, and land cover with his own imported project files. He then scored the landscape for structural vulnerability, and used historical imagery to confirm erosion indicators over time. His team's fieldwork narrowed down to the high-risk zones covering just 7% of the total area, saving time and resources. As Cuellar Díaz explains:
"By combining Google Earth's imagery, data, and tools with my own data, we could select our sites strategically and target field visits strictly to where they were needed. Google Earth allowed me to analyze my site, understand terrain, and tell a clear story with my findings."
Phase 3: Add critical context with data layers
Topography is one input. Zoning, utility access, and environmental characteristics shape a layout just as much. Add powerful data layers directly over your previous analysis:
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Building footprints and parcel boundaries: Overlay buildings and parcel lines to verify setbacks, easements, and ownership limits against your plans.
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Zoning: Quickly add data to ensure your vision matches local constraints.
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Infrastructure access: With layers based on Street View imagery, identify proximity to important resources and blockers like manholes, fire hydrants, any more.
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Environmental and climate factors: Display inundation history, tree canopy density, and land surface temperatures to address environmental impact assessments and local building codes early.
Insights emerge when geospatial information comes together in one place. Your slope analysis found a level building pad. Your environmental layer shows it sits inside a flood zone. Neither dataset says that on its own.
Phase 4: Align stakeholders with map projects and Google Drive sharing
Analysis changes a project only when the people deciding can see it. Bring everything together in a single map project and share it through Google Drive, with the same permission controls as a Google Doc.
Leadership, peers, clients, and field superintendents open your live map project across desktop and mobile. Non-technical partners explore the site in full 3D context, rotate the view to examine steep grades, and review cut and fill estimates themselves. Approvals move faster when every stakeholder reads the same map.
Plan your next site analysis on Google Earth
De-risk your next project before you commit capital or send crews to the field. The new site analysis tools are available today in all Google Earth plans, with expanded access and capabilities in the Professional and Professional Advanced plans.
Open your area of interest and run your first site analysis in Google Earth.
