Assessing spatiotemporal dynamics of sustainable development goals on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau

Assessing SDGs offers critical insights into the challenges of sustainable development. However, the lack of detailed and up-to-date information constrains our comprehensive understanding of SDG progress on the QTP. To bridge this gap, we integrate multi-source data to produce high-resolution SDG mappings from 2000 to 2020, examining the dynamics of SDGs and their evolving interactions across the QTP. The SDG scores exhibit a declining gradient from southeast to northwest, with high-value regions concentrated in major urban centers and the southern and southeastern areas of the QTP. Over the past two decades, SDG scores have steadily improved, particularly in the eastern, southeastern, and northeastern regions. The proportion of the population residing in areas with SDG scores exceeding 50 surged from 38.68% to 90%. SDG performance across varying altitudes and slopes improved, with the most significant progress observed in low-altitude and low-slope areas. Moreover, the interaction intensities of SDG1, SDG4, and SDG9 increased across multiple scales, while synergies involving SDG1 expanded significantly. To achieve balanced regional development, future strategies should prioritize SDGs exhibiting declining trends, as well as SDG pairs with weakened synergies or intensified trade-offs, and implement targeted measures to address these challenges.