Land-art Space — Restoring Severely Desertified Land Through Land Art

Land Arts

Restoring Severely Desertified Land Through Land Art

Land art here means trees planted in a deliberate shape, large enough to be read from the air. The shape is what brings attention and money to the ground; the trees are what hold it. Four works so far on severely desertified rangeland in Dornogovi — two grown in, two beginning in 2026 — each one fenced against livestock, irrigated, and counted every year for ten years. Each has a model of its own ground below: run it, and the years pass from bare sand to a closed canopy.

(01) · 2019 → 2026

BE HUMAN

30,000 m²21,857 treesPlanted June 2021

The inaugural project spans a 300 by 100-meter corridor where the living canopy forms a satellite-legible message, defining what it means to "be human" through the active stewardship of the earth.

2020before planting

(02) · 2021 → 2026

ART N TECH

38,970 m²36,000 treesPlanted 2023–2024

This precise geometry, the central ring combined with the three corner nodes, creates a system of four interconnected circles. This layout symbolizes the four seasons and nomadic grassland management.

2022before planting

(03) · 2026 → 2032

HEXAGON

30,000 m² site9,000 pits27,000 trees54 cells

The third work, and the 2026–2032 programme. Fifty-four hexagonal cells set out by GPS on a fenced three-hectare site, 9,000 m² of it under planting. Cells run from 12 m² to 400 m², each with a fixed position, an identifier and a named steward. Pits are dug 1 m apart in both directions and take three seedlings each, so a cell states the trees it can actually hold. The build order is dependency-driven — water and power, enclosure, buildings, then planting in hardiness order — because on this ground the sequence, not the species list, decides survival.

2026before planting

LOADING THE MODEL

Inside the cells

What each cell holds

A cell is one hexagon of the fifty-four — a numbered patch of ground between 12 and 400 m², with a fixed position and a named steward. Most are planting and nothing else. Six carry what the site runs on — power, water, waste, research, pollinators and birds — and one is planted in elm for the people who took a tree at COP17. None of it is decoration: each one answers a constraint this ground imposes, and the specification below says which. These are views of the same 3D model as the scene above, taken one cell at a time, because at site scale every cell is the same patch of green. Tap a marker for the item and what it is for, or enlarge any picture to see it whole.

AH · 2026 · with Jack's Coffee Small Cup, Big Impact The Jack's Coffee land art — 10,000 Siberian elm in the form of the company's mark — carrying the site's bird provision on the same cell. New planting has no cavities in it, so nesting is the binding constraint long before food is. Boxes and open water do that job here, twenty years before the elms could.

This cell is closed. It is Jack's Coffee's own commission and their own product, so trees in it are not sold here. They come with a specially marked cup: Jack's is serving at COP17 in Ulaanbaatar from 17 to 28 August, and every marked coffee plants one elm in this cell, named for the buyer and reported to them once a year.

See it at Jack's Coffee

A hexagonal cell planted with young trees, bare ground between it and its neighbours. — **AR · 90 m² · delegations** **The delegation grove** Elm, and nothing else. Every tree on this cell was given to someone who came through the delegation pavilion in the Blue Zone at COP17 — the part of the conference where the negotiating is done — so the cell is a record of who was in the room. Small flags mark who holds what: Mongolia and Saudi Arabia among the delegations, GIZ, AVSF, FPWC, Arbori and MMSE among the organisations, and the companies that hold cells elsewhere on this site. A named tree with a fixed position is the unit here as everywhere else; what is different is that this cell is held in common.

Cell E: ground-mounted solar panels in rows with inverter cabinets among them. — **E · 90 m² · energy** **Solar field** Power for the borehole pump, the irrigation controllers, the sensor network and the buildings, with battery reserve for overnight and dust-storm running. Built in parallel with the borehole, because until the array is energised the borehole is a hole and not a water source. Sited on open ground rather than on a roof so the panels stay reachable: soiling is the main loss in this dust regime, and they are swept dry rather than washed, because water is the scarcer input.

Cell J: a covered storage tank beside a shallow collection basin, ringed by shrubs. — **J · 90 m² · water** **Water harvesting** The supply is the borehole — this province has no permanent river or lake, and groundwater is the only reasonable source. This cell catches and holds what arrives on site instead: rain, and dew and hoarfrost off a radiative condenser. At 0.3 to 0.6 litres per square metre on a good night that is a genuine contribution to nursery beds and a working demonstration of the principle. It is not a water supply, and the design does not claim it is.

Cell S: four timber composting bays under a slatted shade canopy, with sorting bins beside them. — **S · 90 m² · waste** **Recycling and compost** The compost is the point; the sorting is housekeeping. Finished compost goes back into the planting pits and is the only organic matter this ground receives. What limits it here is moisture rather than feedstock — in a dry, windy, high-sun climate a pile dries out before it finishes — so the bays sit under a slatted canopy and are turned as little as the process allows.

Cell AD: a field station building with a mast carrying weather instruments. — **AD · 90 m² · research** **Research station** Continuous weather and soil-moisture logging, with vegetation, survival and biodiversity surveyed on a fixed calendar. It is what makes a report to a sponsor a measurement rather than an estimate — and it is what sets the irrigation, because on this ground more water is not better. In the Korea–Mongolia Green Belt trials in the desert region, the trees on the heaviest watering grew the tallest and survived the worst; 4 litres an hour was the optimum for elm and for tamarix.

Cell AK: a low south-facing sand bank pierced with nest holes, with flowering ground in front of it inside a ring of trees. — **AK · 90 m² · pollinators** **Pollinator cell** Pollination is what separates a planting that renews itself from one that has to be replanted. There are no hives on this cell, and that is the design decision, not an omission: the honeybee is not native to Mongolia, and high-density beekeeping has been measured depressing wild bee numbers by around half out to a kilometre — which on a three-hectare site means all of it. So the cell is built for the bees already on this ground. Around 70% of bee species nest in soil, not in anything built, and what they need is a warm, well-drained, undisturbed face.

Several ordinary hexagonal cells filled with shrubs and trees, with bare ground between them. — **The other 47 cells · planting** **Native species, in hardiness order** Saxaul · *Haloxylon ammodendron* on the windward perimeter and elevated ground, stabilising sand and cutting wind at ground level; caragana · *Caragana* spp. in the second rank, fixing nitrogen; tamarix · *Tamarix* spp. on the saline and low-lying ground nothing else will hold; Siberian elm · *Ulmus pumila* in the sheltered interior; Mongolian chives · *Allium mongolicum* as understorey. The order is the design, not a preference. A shelter belt works at 30–50% porosity and shelters twenty to thirty times its own height downwind, which across three hectares means the first ranks cover everything behind them — and the elm, the most demanding species on the list, survives because it is planted last and behind.

Tap any cell in the scene above to see its code, size and status — then take a cell of your own on the live map.

Claim a cell

—

Area

Pits

Elms

Class

Claim a cell

Process

Work
sequence

Hydrological survey in an area severely affected by desertification

Survey & Design

Comprehensive hydrological and soil assessments, precision layout plans, and organic soil remediation form the rigorous foundation prior to any physical intervention.

STEPS 01–04

01 /04

Infrastructure

The integration of groundwater extraction, irrigation networks, renewable power, soil conditioning, and secure fencing creates the essential life-support system that sustains the entire ecosystem.

STEPS 05–09

02 /04

Planting

Following the precise excavation of planting pits, the saplings are mobilized, biologically inoculated, installed, and immediately integrated into a comprehensive irrigation network.

STEPS 10–13

03 /04

Satellite view of a completed land art installation

Monitoring

After the initial planting phase, automated control systems, integrated biosecurity measures, and continuous satellite monitoring ensure the sustained viability of the entire site.

STEPS 14–16

04 /04

Satellite Data

Periodic Spatial Assessment

The site’s biomass is formally assessed every five years by independent spatial data analysts—most recently by Martensite Analytica for the 2019–2024 phase using Sentinel-2 and MODIS. Between these milestone assessments, we leverage Google Earth Engine to capture precise, year-over-year ecological data.

0.1834

NDVI vegetation health — 8-year mean vs. 0.1388 control

0.1318

EVI vegetation density — 8-year mean vs. 0.1055 control

0.2313

FAPAR light absorbed — 8-year mean vs. 0.1751 control

8 / 8

Years the vegetation indices led the control, 2019–2026

Project site Control site

NDVIVegetation health

EVIVegetation density

NDWIWater content

FAPARLight absorbed by canopy

2019–2024 assessed by Martensite Analytica (Sentinel-2, MODIS) · 2025–2026 from Google Earth Engine · project site against an adjacent unrestored control. 2026 * is a part year, to August.

Show the numbers

Year	NDVI project	NDVI control	EVI project	EVI control	NDWI project	NDWI control	FAPAR project	FAPAR control
2019	0.1394	0.1307	0.1052	0.0988	-0.2748	-0.2662	0.1758	0.1649
2020	0.1753	0.1417	0.1252	0.1066	-0.3013	-0.2652	0.2212	0.1787
2021	0.1984	0.1357	0.1476	0.1117	-0.3108	-0.2522	0.2503	0.1712
2022	0.1334	0.1129	0.1004	0.0851	-0.2778	-0.2560	0.1682	0.1424
2023	0.1419	0.1017	0.1076	0.0808	-0.2829	-0.2482	0.1790	0.1284
2024	0.2684	0.1941	0.1864	0.1473	-0.3629	-0.3124	0.3386	0.2448
2025	0.2409	0.1674	0.1594	0.1197	-0.3568	-0.2892	0.3039	0.2112
2026	0.1693	0.1262	0.1223	0.0942	-0.3062	-0.2568	0.2136	0.1592

Daily Sentinel-2 timelapse, 2019 to 2024

Sentinel-2 · Martensite Analytica, 2019–2024

Daily Timelapse, 2019–2024

EVI vegetation index timelapse, 2019 to 2024

EVI · Martensite Analytica, 2019–2024

Vegetation Density, 2019–2024

Enhanced Sentinel-2 timelapse with scale bar, 2019 to 2024

Sentinel-2 Enhanced · Martensite Analytica, 2019–2024

Enhanced View, with Scale

Enhanced Sentinel-2 timelapse, 2019 to 2024

Sentinel-2 Enhanced · Martensite Analytica, 2019–2024

Enhanced View, Full Length

Data-sonification

The Forest, Audible

Two tools turn eight years of satellite measurement over this ground into sound.

Ambient Forest

TOOL 01

Every value you hear is measured. Sentinel-2 has passed over this ground more than 460 times since 2019, and the monthly means of three indices drive the sound directly: NDVI (vegetation health) sets the register, EVI (vegetation density) the note density, FAPAR (light absorbed by the canopy) the brightness, and the year's herbaceous carbon the depth of the bass. It is written as a piece, not a readout: 66 beats a minute, one six-bar phrase per year, and the chord of each phrase is chosen by that year's lead over the untouched control ground beside it. Those eight measured margins spell vi – IV – I – IV – V – I – I – V in D major — unresolved in 2019, home by 2021, falling back for the dry 2022, twice at the tonic across 2024 and 2025, and leaving on the dominant because 2026 is only counted to August. Nobody chose that progression; the measurements did. Just under three minutes, then it loops. Direct plant measurement — bioelectric potential, sap flow — begins when the on-site laboratory is built in 2028.

VOLUME

Sentinel-2 monthly means · 2019–2026 · Jan 2019

NDVI · vegetation health

0.0000

FAPAR · light absorbed

0.0000

EVI · vegetation density

0.0000

Lead over control site

+0.0000

Within each phrase the melody follows the vegetation curve: the note rises with NDVI, so the August peak of 2024 — 0.4507, the highest reading in the record — is the top note of the piece, and every December falls back to the bass and the wind. A bell opens each year. Note choice runs on a three-month rolling mean and moves by steps within one octave, because a satellite reading can jump by a third of its range between two passes and a line that jumps with it is not a melody. The shape is the measurement; only the jitter is smoothed. The readouts above always show the measured monthly figures, unsmoothed.

Data Symphony

TOOL 02

The same eight years as a fixed piece, a little over a minute: two bars each, with an opening bar and a closing cadence. NDVI sets the melody, EVI how densely the bar is filled, the year's herbaceous carbon the bass, bare ground the percussion. It reads the same chord chart as the piece above, so the dry 2022 sits on the subdominant while 2024 and 2025 land twice on the tonic — and those two years, the strongest in the record, are also the busiest bars. The arpeggio climbs in the years the margin over the control widened and falls in the years it narrowed, so the direction of travel is audible. It ends on the dominant, unresolved, because the record ends in August 2026.

NDVI

EVI

CARBON

BARE

Cell Map

Fifty-four cells,
individually reported

Restoration on this site is allocated and reported cell by cell. Each of the 54 cells has a fixed position and an identifier, and carries its sponsor's name once taken; growth is reported once a year for the sponsor's own cell, so a contribution can be traced to a located area of ground rather than to a site average. Sponsorship confers stewardship and recognition — not title to land.

Sponsor a tree → Choose a cell, name your certificate, pay. Three elms to a pit, one numbered certificate.

Community
members