Measuring SDG 15 at the County Scale: Localization and Practice of SDGs Indicators Based on Geospatial Information

To achieve the goal of worldwide sustainable protection and utilization of terrestrial ecosystems, it is necessary to quantitatively assess the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG 15) at all administrative levels, especially at the grass-roots level, using the indicator framework of the UN SDGs. However, in the SDG 15 indicator system, the relationship between goal and indicators is ambiguous, and the results of the indicators cannot be visualized to show the differences within regions. Moreover, its design scale is country-oriented, which suggests that the indicator system cannot be applied directly to the county levels. In light of these issues, this paper used four modalities of localization to form an indicator system of localization, and applied it in the quantitative evaluation of meeting the objectives of SDG 15 in Deqing County, China. The localized indicator system for county level based on geospatial information included six indicators, which were clustered into three categories: sustainable forest management, halt and reverse land degradation, and conservation of biodiversity. By comparing and evaluating the quantitative results of SDG 15 in Deqing, 70% of the comparable indicators in the localization indicator system were at the forefront of those in China or the world. The results showed that grouped analysis of the targets and indicators could clarify the relationship between the implications of the goal and indicators, and the indicator system based on the geographic information was conducive to displaying the spatial distribution of the results of the indicators and clarifying the internal differences.