Trends.Earth

Trends.Earth is a free and open source tool to understand land change: the how and why behind changes on the ground. Trends.Earth allows users to draw on the best available information from across a range of sources - from globally available data to customized local maps. A broad range of users are applying Trends.Earth for projects ranging from planning and monitoring restoration efforts, to tracking urbanization, to developing official national reports for submission to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Trends.Earth is a QGIS plugin that supports monitoring of land change, including trends in urbanization, and changes in productivity, land cover, and soil organic carbon. The tool can support monitoring land degradation for reporting to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), as well as tracking progress towards achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).

Trends.Earth was produced by a partnership of Conservation International, Lund University, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It was further developed through a partnership with Conservation International, University of Bern, University of Colorado in partnership with USDA and USAID, University of California - Santa Barbara in partnership with University of North Carolina - Wilmington and Brown University with additional funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Documentation

See the user guide for information on how to use the plugin.

Installation of stable version of plugin

The easiest way to install the plugin is from within QGIS, using the QGIS plugin repository. However, It is also possible to install the plugin manually from a zipfile, which can be useful to access an old version of the plugin, or to install the plugin without internet. Instructions for both of these possibilities are below.

Stable version from within QGIS (recommended)

The easiest way to install the plugin is from within QGIS, using the QGIS plugin repository.

Stable version from zipfile

Download a stable version of Trends.Earth from the list of available releases on GitHub. Then follow the instructions below on installing the plugin from a zipfile.

Installation of unstable version of plugin

If you are interested in using the unstable (actively under development) version of the plugin, with the very latest (but not as well tested) features, or in contributing to the development of it, you will want to install the development version. There are two ways to install the development version:

• Using a packaged version (zipfile)

• Cloning the github repository and installing from that code

It is easier to install the plugin from a zipfile than from github, so this option is recommended unless you are interested in contributing to development of the plugin.

Development version from zipfile

Download the latest Trends.Earth zipfile (or use the the zipfile from the develop branch for the absolute latest version). Then follow the instructions below on installing the plugin from a zipfile.

QGIS3+ is required for the latest versions of Trends.Earth. The QGIS2 version is no longer supported (support ended in March 2020). If you want to use a previous version of Trends.Earth (e.g. versions that work with QGIS2), please refer to this repository where all Trends.Earth releases are available.

Development version from source

Open a terminal window and clone the latest version of the repository from Github:

git clone https://github.com/ConservationInternational/trends.earth

Navigate to the root folder of the newly cloned repository, and install invoke, a tool that assists with installing the plugin:

pip install invoke

Now run the setup task with invoke to pull in the external dependencies needed for the project:

invoke plugin-setup

then you can install the plugin using invoke:

invoke plugin-install --profile=<profile name>

If you modify the code, you need to run invoke plugin-install to update the installed plugin in QGIS. You only need to rerun invoke plugin-setup if you change or update the plugin dependencies. After reinstalling the plugin you will need to restart QGIS or reload the plugin. Install the "Plugin reloader" plugin if you plan on making a log of changes (https://github.com/borysiasty/plugin_reloader).

Installing plugin from a zipfile

While installing trends.earth directly from within QGIS is recommended, it might be necessary to install the plugin from a zipfile if you need to install it offline, or if you need the latest features.

To install from a zipfile, first download a zipfile of the stable or development version. The zipfile might be named LDMP.zipor LDMP_QGIS3.zip depending on what version you are installing.

When using QGIS3.10.3 or greater versions it is possible to install trends.earth directly from a zipfile. To install trends.earth from a zipfile, open QGIS3.10.3 (or greater) and click on "Plugins" then on "Manage and install plugins" and choose the option "Install from ZIP". Browse to the folder in which the zipfile has been saved, select the zipfile and click on 'Install Plugin'. It is not necessary to unzip the file.

Please, note that the latest version of trends.earth is only supported for QGIS3.10.3 or greater versions.

Start QGIS, and click on "Plugins" then "Manage and install plugins". In the plugins window that appears, click on "Installed", and then make sure there is a check in the box next to "Land Degradation Monitoring Tool". The plugin is now installed and activated. Click "Close", and start using the plugin.

Getting help

General questions

If you have questions related to the methods used by the plugin, how to use a particular dataset or function, etc., it is best to first check the user guide to see if your question is already addressed there. The frequently asked questions (FAQ) page is another good place to look.

If you don't find your answer in the above pages, you can also contact the discussion group.

Reporting an issue (error, possible bug, etc.)

If you think you have found a bug in Trends.Earth, report your issue to our issue tracker so the developers can look into it.

When you report an issue, be sure to provide enough information to allow us to be able to reproduce it. In particular, be sure to specify:

• What you were doing with the plugin when the problem or error occurred (for example "I clicked on 'Download Results' and got an error messaging saying describe what the message said".
• The operating system you are using, version of the plugin are you using, and version of QGIS that you are using
• If you are emailing about an error or problem that occurred when downloading results, tell us your username, and the task start time that is listed in the download tool for the task you are referring to
• If the error occurred while processing data with the plugin, tell us the location you were analyzing with the tool (for example: "I selected Argentina from the dropdown menu"). If you used your own shapefile, please send us the file you used.
• If you got a message saying "An error has occurred while executing Python code", send us either the text of the message, or a a screenshot of the error message. Also, send us the content of the Trends.Earth log messages panel. To access the Trends.Earth log messages panel, select "View", then "Panels", then "Log Messages" from within QGIS. Copy and paste the text from that panel and include it in your issue report. It will make it easiest for us to track things down (as there will be fewer log messages) if you do this after first starting a new QGIS session and immediately reproducing the error.

License

Trends.Earth is free and open-source. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later