[general]
name=Isobenefit Urbanism
qgisMinimumVersion=4.0
qgisMaximumVersion=4.99
description=Sketch walkable urban growth scenarios on real-world data, after D'Acci's Isobenefit Urbanism: every new home within a walk of a mixed-use centre and of green space.
version=0.17.1
author=Gareth Simons
email=gareth.simons@ucl.ac.uk

about=The Isobenefit Urbanism QGIS plugin explores walkable urban development against real-world datasets. It grows settlements by simple rules: every new home must sit within a walking distance of a mixed-use centre (shops, services) and of green space. The model follows Luca D'Acci's Isobenefit Urbanism (D'Acci 2019, Journal of Environmental Management; D'Acci & Voto 2023, SoftwareX) and reimplements the cellular automaton originally coded by Michele Voto, with documented departures and extensions (fixed existing fabric, OSM inputs, transit-oriented growth, centre post-processing). See the homepage for the full guide and worked scenarios.
    The plugin bundles an OpenStreetMap extraction tool, ships six worked scenarios in the repository's "scenarios" folder, and writes reproducible runs (each run saves a parameters sidecar that the dialog can reload).
    This plugin is marked experimental: enable "Show also Experimental Plugins" in the plugin manager settings to see it.
    On first use, the plugin offers to install its simulation engine (the "isobenefit" package from PyPI) into the QGIS Python environment; this needs an internet connection and a QGIS restart. No manual package installation is required.
    Licensed under the GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later (see the LICENSE file).

tracker=https://github.com/UCL/BSP-isobenefit-qgis-plugin/issues
repository=https://github.com/UCL/BSP-isobenefit-qgis-plugin
homepage=https://github-pages.ucl.ac.uk/BSP-isobenefit-qgis-plugin/
icon=icon.png
experimental=True
deprecated=False
server=False

changelog=
    0.17.1 The engine version bound admits 0.17.x; the 0.17.0 plugin could not install its engine.
    0.17.0 The changelog is condensed to a line per release; the full notes remain in the repository history.
    0.16.0 Thin barrier corridors seal at rasterisation, so a walk crosses a motorway or river only at a walkable link; centre areas follow their catchment population with no cap; every centre a run owes is planted in the iteration that earns it; optimised placement iterates until the centres stop moving; the run report regains its transit rows.
    0.15.0 The OSM download writes a walkable-ways layer, and a barrier becomes crossable where a footpath or bridge crosses it while staying closed to development.
    0.14.0 A steep-slopes input with a slope limit in degrees; barriers burned by cell centre; walks cannot cut a corner between blocked cells; the minimum green span protects only corridors between different settlements; centres are earned by catchment population instead of drawn by a per-cell probability.
    0.13.1 The centre-seeding cap at 80 percent of target is removed; viability alone decides which centres survive.
    0.13.0 Transit hubs anchor pinned centres, transit corridors concentrate growth by a corridor preference, attached infill counts as new development, and unviable pockets are reclassified as protected green before the run.
    0.12.22 Four outputs: the raw run, centres as grown, optimised placement, and fewest centres, each keeping every home within the centre walk; downloaded OSM layers arrive pre-styled.
    0.12.21 The run report becomes fixed-width tables; rail and tram stations seed centres by default; a CRS whose area of use misses the extents layer is rejected with the local UTM zone named.
    0.12.20 Metadata made parseable by the plugin repository; a run's output layers load as one named group.
    0.12.19 Per-stage progress and warnings report to the Isobenefit tab of the Log Messages panel.
    0.12.18 Post-processing candidates run about twice as fast again.
    0.12.17 Post-processing is engine-accelerated and barrier-aware.
    0.12.16 The run dialog pre-fills a numbered scenarios folder beside the downloaded data.
    0.12.15 Bounded grid walks everywhere; street-network routing removed; centre placement is settlement-local.
    0.12.14 Walk-field caching cuts post-processing from about 40 to 3 seconds per candidate.
    0.12.13 The post-processing selection reports progress and honours Cancel.
    0.12.12 Defaults grounded in practice: 800 m centre walk, 400 m green walk, a minimum settlement of 1,000 people; new development earns its own centres.
    0.12.11 Development can build up to a carved barrier; green corridors between developments stay protected.
    0.12.10 First public beta, for QGIS 4. Earlier development history is recorded in the repository.

tags=pyqgis,simulation,planning,urban planning,urbanism,walkability,cellular automaton,openstreetmap,scenario,green space
