Soil moisture in the Nanxiong basin was mapped to understand land degradation. Different methods were used to estimate soil moisture distribution, with the Inverse Distance Weighting method showing the best results. The study found that soil moisture ranged from 8.12% to 32.82%, with lower moisture in areas with red bed desert characteristics. Temperature and soil density were negatively correlated with soil moisture. The spatial distribution of soil moisture can help monitor land degradation and agricultural drought in the red bed area.