Land cover degradation in the reference and monitoring periods of the SDG Land Degradation Neutrality Indicator for Switzerland

•Natural cover regenerates as otherland transitions to grassland and grassland to tree-covered area.•Main trend is cultivated land loss to artificial surfaces during both observation periods.•Proposed method of annual land cover mapping has potential to fill gaps in Swiss Corine and Arealstatistik data for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).•Adapt land cover change criteria to Swiss context for consistent interpretation of land degradation processes.