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Trends.Earth is a free and open source tool to understand land change: the how and whybehind changes on the ground. Trends.Earth allows users to draw on the best availableinformation from across a range of sources - from globally available data to customizedlocal maps. A broad range of users are applying Trends.Earth for projects ranging fromplanning and monitoring restoration efforts, to tracking urbanization, to developingofficial national reports for submission to the United Nations Convention to CombatDesertification (UNCCD).

Trends.Earth is aQGIS plugin that supports monitoring of landchange, including trends in urbanization, and changes in productivity, land cover, andsoil organic carbon. The tool can support monitoring land degradation for reporting tothe Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Convention to CombatDesertification (UNCCD), as well as tracking progress towards achievement of SustainableDevelopment Goal (SDG) target 15.3, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).

Trends.Earth was produced by a partnership of Conservation International, LundUniversity, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), withthe support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It was further developedthrough 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 BrownUniversity with additional funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

See theuser guide for information on how to usethe plugin.

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

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

Download a stable version ofTrends.Earth fromthe list of available releases onGitHub. Then followthe instructions below oninstalling the plugin from azipfile.

If you are interested in using the development version of theplugin, with the very latest (but not as well tested) features, or in contributing tothe development of it, you will want to install the development version. Notethat the development version is more likely to contain bugs or other issuesthat have yet to be resolved. There are two ways to install the developmentversion:

• 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 thisoption is recommended unless you are interested in contributing to developmentof the plugin.

Download the latestTrends.Earthzipfile. Thenfollow the instructions below oninstalling the plugin from azipfile.

QGIS3+ is required for the latest versions of Trends.Earth. The QGIS2 version is nolonger supported (support ended in March 2020). If you want to use a previous version ofTrends.Earth (e.g. versions that work with QGIS2), please refer to thisrepository whereallTrends.Earth releases are available.

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

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

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

pip install invoke

Now run the setup task withinvoke to pull in the external dependencies neededfor 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 runinvoke plugin-install to update theinstalled plugin in QGIS. You only need to reruninvoke plugin-setup if youchange or update the plugin dependencies. After reinstalling the plugin youwill 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).

While installingtrends.earth directly from within QGIS is recommended, itmight be necessary to install the plugin from a zipfile if you need to installit offline, or if you need the latest features.

To install from a zipfile, first download a zipfile of thestable version. The zipfile might benamedLDMP.ziporLDMP_QGIS3.zip depending on whatversion you are installing.

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

Please, note that the latest version oftrends.earth is only supported forQGIS3.10.3 or greater versions.

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

If you have questions related to the methods used by the plugin, how to use aparticular dataset or function, etc., it is best to first check theuserguide to see if your question is alreadyaddressed there. Thefrequently asked questions (FAQ)page is another good place tolook.

If you don't find your answer in the above pages, you can alsocontact thediscussion group.

If you think you have found a bug in Trends.Earth, report your issue to ourissuetracker sothe developers can look into it.

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

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

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