Land degradation is an important environmental problem facing the world. “Land Degradation Neutrality” is one of the core indicators in the 15th goal of the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” for 2030. Mongolia is an important country for global land degradation. The increasingly serious land degradation has caused a direct impact on the ecosystem of the entire Mongolian plateau. We analyzed the patterns of land degradation and restoration during 1990–2010 and 2010–2015 and determined the driving forces behind the variations, by using fine resolution land cover data for the first time in Mongolia. The results showed that the spatial distribution of newly increased land degradation and restoration have a strong transitional nature. For the past 25 years, the trend of land change in Mongolia was dominated by land degradation. However, land degradation was accompanied by ongoing restoration of some land areas, and the capacity for land restoration has been gradually improved. This study discovers a series of typical land degradation and restoration regions and provides an interpretation of the driving forces in these areas. The joint effects of natural and socioeconomic factors have been found to result in land degradation and restoration in different regions.

土地退化是世界面临的重要环境问题。“土地退化中立”是2030年“联合国可持续发展目标”第15个目标的核心指标之一。蒙古是全球土地退化的重要国家。日益严重的土地退化直接影响了整个蒙古高原的生态系统。我们使用蒙古的首次高分辨率土地覆盖数据，分析了1990-2010年和2010-2015年土地退化和恢复的模式，并确定了变化背后的驱动力。结果表明，新近增加的土地退化和恢复的空间分布具有很强的过渡性。在过去的25年中，蒙古土地变化的趋势主要是土地退化。然而，土地退化伴随着一些土地面积的不断恢复，土地恢复能力逐步提高。这项研究发现了一系列典型的土地退化和恢复区域，并对这些区域的驱动力进行了解释。已发现自然和社会经济因素的共同影响导致不同区域的土地退化和恢复。