Guiding the sustainable reclamation of abandoned farmland: insights from China’s Loess Plateau

• First mapped abandonment-reclamation cycle using sliding-window GEE (2000–2020). • Abandonment fell 94.24 km 2 yr −1 ; reclamation rose 5.96 km 2 yr −1 ; deficit persisted. • 63.02 % mismatch between abandonment and reclamation shows asynchronous transitions. • Abandonment driven by topography–climate; reclamation by terrain–climate–human. • Reclamation prioritizes zones: 32.38 % priority, 50.39 % potential, 17.23 % ecological. The accelerating abandonment of farmland globally threatens food security and ecosystem integrity. However, existing studies predominantly focus on abandonment at single spatiotemporal scales, lacking systematic analyses of the spatial patterns and differing driving mechanisms across the full abandonment-reclamation cycle, and research on sustainable reclamation strategies grounded in quantitative indicators remains notably absent. This study addresses these gaps by focusing on China’s Loess Plateau, an archetypal arid–semi-arid region. Integrating Google Earth Engine with multi-source spatial data, a sliding-window algorithm was developed to detect abandoned and reclaimed farmland, their spatiotemporal dynamics and drivers from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed using Geodetector, and a novel reclamation potential index (RPI) based on multi-factor drivers was introduced to guide sustainable reclamation strategies. Results reveal a fluctuating decline in abandoned farmland area (−94.24 km 2 yr −1 ) and a gradual increase in reclaimed farmland (+5.96 km 2 yr −1 ), yielding an average annual deficit of 828.86 km 2 . Spatially, the processes exhibit a mismatch-dominant pattern (63.02 % non-overlap) with global dispersion and local clustering. Abandonment is primarily driven by topographic and climatic constraints, while reclamation arises from integrated terrain–climate–human interactions. The RPI, weighted by driver q-values, delineated three zones—priority reclamation (32.38 %), potential reclamation (50.39 %), and ecological maintenance (17.23 %)—enabling tailored strategies that balance productivity, soil restoration, and biodiversity. This study offers a scalable, indicator-driven framework for sustainable farmland management in global arid and semi-arid regions, enhancing regional food and ecological security through targeted reclamation policies.