A permafrost map cannot inspect a building plot

Regional permafrost maps provide context, not inspections of individual building plots. This essay reads the Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground-Ice Conditions to separate mapped extent classes from parcel-level probabilities and ground-ice abundance from the thermal definition of permafrost. It explains why zooming, resampling, or displaying sharper boundaries cannot add evidence absent from the original map. Production scale, historical observations, release dates, and the meanings of blank areas all constrain interpretation. Local snow, surface conditions, and materials further limit direct transfer from a regional class to a particular site. The practical outcome is a concise reporting approach that names dataset, version, property, scale, methods, and limits. Actual foundation decisions remain dependent on competent site-specific investigation, not a colour selected on screen.