The classification of degradation level according to degradation thresholds is crucial to guide the restoration of alpine meadows. In order to establish a method to identify the degradation thresholds of plant communities and classify meadow degradation levels, a field survey was conducted in a typical alpine meadow in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, which was seriously disturbed by tourism in 2018. Based on the process of geo-coding, a Mann-Kendall abruption test was used to identify the tipping points of structural (species richness, R; summed dominance ratio of preferred herbage, P_SDR) and functional indexes (aboveground biomass, AGB) of plant communities, which were used as the change thresholds of structural and functional indexes of meadow plant communities. And the degradation level of meadow plant communities was classified according to these tipping points. The results indicated that:1) the tipping points of species richness of the alpine meadow in the study area were 10, 13 and 17, respectively. The tipping points of the P_SDR were 0.25, 0.30 and 0.39, respectively. And the tipping points of AGB were 31.98 g/m² and 91.68 g/m², respectively. 2) The plant community could be divided into primary degradation type and transitional degradation type. The primary degradation type included three sub-types:degradation level I, i.e., 13 ≤ R<17, 0.30 ≤ P_SDR<0.39 and 31.98 g/m² ≤ AGB<91.68 g/m²; degradation level II, i.e., 10 ≤ R<13, 0.25 ≤ P_SDR<0.30, and 31.98 g/m² ≤ AGB<91.68 g/m²; and degradation level III, i.e., R<10, P_SDR<0.25 and AGB<31.98 g/m². The transitional degradation type was the type whose degradation level was between each two primary degradation types, which included four sub-types:1) positive transition from level I, i.e., the meadow's situation changed from degradation level I to a healthy status; 2) negative transition from level I, i.e., the meadow's situation changed from degradation level I to level Ⅱ; 3) negative transition from level Ⅱ, i.e., the meadow's situation changed from degradation level Ⅱ to level Ⅲ; and 4) positive transition from level Ⅲ, i.e., the meadow's situation changed from degradation level Ⅲ to level Ⅱ. Our results suggest that the degradation thresholds of structural and functional indexes of alpine meadow plant communities can be identified according to a geo-coding based on abruption analysis. The degradation level of meadow plant communities, there by, can be classified more objectively and integrally according to these thresholds. And then, the method will support ecological restoration of alpine meadows.