Integrating land resilience assessment to revisit the sustainable land degradation neutrality target of China

Improving land degradation neutrality (LDN) assessment is essential to address land degradation. Although land resilience contributes to the achievements of sustainable LDN targets, its specific assessment program is sparsely considered in LDN to date. In our research, we constructed a new LDN assessment system for China and tried to provide a concrete practical solution for sustainable land use. Results have indicated that there were only 1.11×10 km (11.07%) of highly resilient land in China. The spatial distribution pattern of ‘western recovery-central balance-eastern degradation’ have been developed in the past 20 years. The reduction of areas and imbalance of spatial distribution have put pressures on sustainable LDN targets. Land productivity of major grain producing regions have risen enormously with significant degradation in land resilience. We recommended prioritizing the restoration of land resilience in major grain producing areas and cooperating LDN with other sustainable development goals at the watershed scales. Furthermore, this study not only provided an effective and convenient tool for sustainable LDN assessment, but also contributed to the LDN governance and actions to curb land degradation around the world.