SDG 2 Zero hunger

Under-five stunting in 2002 (a) and 2017 (b) by province in China

·  China has substantially reduced the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years of age, from 18.8 percent in 2002 to 4.8 percent in 2017, which has met SDG target 2.2 (under 5.9 percent).

·  During the monitoring period, the prevalence of stunting among Chinese children under 5 years old decreased from 7.8 percent to 3.4 percent in urban areas and from 25.6 percent to 5.8 percent in rural areas. The gap between urban and rural areas is narrowing year by year, with a significant decline observed in rural areas.

·  China is able to increase its grain harvest area by about 1.35×105 to 3.63×105 km2 on existing cropland by increasing its multiple cropping index. Under the most realistic scenario, grain production is expected to be increased by 19.6 percent. 

SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation

Water transparency indicated by Secchi disk depth (SDD) of China's large lakes during 2000-2019 (a) The mean SDD values; (b) Proportions of lakes with differ-ent water clarity levels

The change rate in NDVI was the linear fitting slope during 2000-2019. IMXL: Inner

Mongolia-Xinjiang Lake; TPL: Tibetan Plateau Lake; YGPL: Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Lake;

NPML: North-east Plain and Mountain Lake; EPL: Eastern Plain Lake

·  During 2000-2019, the water transparency of China’s lakes showed a spatial pattern of “high in the west and low in the east”. Overall, water clarity was good and showed a positive trend. The proportion of Types I, II, and III water bodies with good clarity increased from 84.11 percent in 2000 to 92.46 percent in 2019.

·  Analysis of the spatial distribution of China’s vegetated wet-lands in 2015 and measurement of changes in mangrove for-ests and Spartina alterniflora in China between 2015 and 2018 showed that the net increase in mangrove forests was 22.11 per-cent, and the net decrease in invasive Spartina alterniflora was 2.59 percent. In China, mangrove forests have been significantly restored and the invasion of Spartina alterniflora is under effec-tive control.

SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities

Share of open public space area in prefectural-level Chinese cities in 2018

·  The share of open public space area in built-up areas in Chinese provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Province) averaged 19.50 percent in 2018, 1.5 percentage points higher than the 2015 figure of 17.98 percent.

·  In prefecture-level cities, the share of open public space area in nearly 50 cities exceeded 20 percent. The share was larger on the southeast side of Hu Line than on the northwest side. It was larger in the city clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Sichuan basin and central Yunnan than in their surrounding regions.

·  In 2018, the proportion of the population with easy access to public transportation in urban built-up areas in China was 80.56 percent on average. The proportions in the eastern coastal region and Sichuan and Chongqing were higher than the rest of the country. Compared with 2015, 80 percent of Chinese cities saw higher proportions to varying degrees, while about 8 percent experienced slight declines.

SDG 13 Climate action

·  The spatiotemporal changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme high-temperature events and heatwaves in China have been assessed over the 1990-2018 timeframe, based on ho-mogenized temperature series data from 754 terrestrial weather stations. They point to the significantly increased intensity and frequency of extreme high-temperature events and heatwaves in China since the late 1990s.

·  Projections of changed phenology of China’s main crops through the 2030s (2011-2040) put the probability of early maturation of wheat and maize at 90.4 percent to 91.2 percent and 62.9 percent to 64.5 percent respectively. Without appropriate interventions, climate change will lead to forward shifts in the phenology of these crops and shortened cycles of growth, with negative implications for wheat and maize yields.

SDG 14 Life below water

·  An analysis of the distribution and variation of floating debris in 22 typical coastal areas of China showed that the abundance of floating debris in China’s coastal waters in 2018 was approximately 25 percent below the 2010 to 2014 average. Microplastics shape found in China’s coastal waters in 2019 were mainly fibrous, linear, spherical, and fragmented and the distribution of microplastics varied from region to region, with the average abundance of microplastics at low to medium levels.

·  The ecosystems of Jiaozhou Bay, Sishili Bay and Daya Bay are in relatively good health at present. For more than a decade from 2007 to 2019, the overall health of the Jiaozhou Bay ecosystem was stable with some upticks, while that of Sishili Bay and Daya Bay remained stable. The health condition of Daya Bay showed slight improvement from 2016 onward.

SDG 15 Life on land

Distribution of forests by climate zone and continent, 2019

(a)    By climate zone; (b) By continent

·  In 2019, there were 36.92×108 hm2 of forests worldwide, cov-ering approximately 24.78 percent of the Earth’s total land area. Of all the continents, South America had the highest ratio of forest area to total land area (47.45 percent) and Oceania the lowest (12.80 percent).

·  Since 2000, vegetation coverage on the Loess Plateau has been greatly improved, with an average increase of 17.06 percent, improving its effect on soil and water conservation by 22.00 percent.

·  The year 2000 was a watershed in the aeolian desertification of China’s semi-arid regions. Until 2000, there had been a degradation trend primarily because of irresponsible human activities such as overlogging, overcultivation and overgrazing. The aeolian desertification process began to reverse in 2000, largely thanks to the implementation of ecological protection policies.

Source: Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (2020)