GeoE3 v2.0.0 - Major Performance & Stability Release

This is a major release representing 103 commits and significant improvements across performance, stability, user experience, and branding since the v1.2.6 release.

Highlights

Complete rebrand from WEE/GEEST to GeoE3 (Geospatial Enabling Environments for Employment)
Dramatic performance improvements - processing times reduced by up to 70% for large study areas
Memory-bounded parallel processing - prevents memory exhaustion on large datasets
Enhanced stability - numerous crash fixes and error handling improvements
Improved reporting - dimension and factor maps now included in analysis reports

🎨 Branding & Naming

The tool has been comprehensively rebranded from "WEE" (Women's Economic Empowerment) to "GeoE3" (Geospatial Enabling Environments for Employment):

All user-visible text updated from "WEE Score" to "GeoE3 Score"
Layer groups renamed from "WEE" to "GeoE3"
Variable names, dictionary keys, folder names, and QML files updated
Plugin name and menu items reflect new branding

⚠️ BREAKING CHANGE: Existing project files created with v1.x may need updates for new dictionary keys. We recommend creating fresh projects with v2.0.0.

⚡ Performance Improvements

Grid Processing

Memory-bounded parallel grid creation - Uses configurable worker count (grid_creation_workers setting) with bounded write queues (100K max) to prevent memory blowouts on large study areas
Async writer thread - Batch writes happen in background without blocking analysis
Two-phase spatial checks - Contains-then-Intersects strategy reduces intersection tests by ~90%

GeoPackage Optimizations

GDAL tuning - OGR_SQLITE_JOURNAL=MEMORY and OGR_SQLITE_SYNCHRONOUS=OFF for faster writes
SQL-based batch updates - Replaces slow feature-by-feature updates with bulk SQL operations
Segment-based spatial indexing - More efficient queries for long linestrings

Network Analysis

Optimized feature matching in native network analysis processor
Optimized OSM polygon processing for greenspaces and other downloads

Reporting

Skip study_area_grid layer in report generation (too many features to render efficiently)
Skip grid cells that already have maximum score to reduce unnecessary processing

🐛 Bug Fixes

Critical Stability Fixes

Fixed crash when concurrency > 1 - Major stability improvement for parallel processing
Fixed memory blowout in parallel grid creation for large datasets
Fixed multipart geometry handling in network analysis and study area creation

CRS & Geometry Fixes

Fixed 2.5D geometry warnings - All geometries now properly flattened to 2D
Fixed EPSG:54009 CRS warning - Now uses correct ESRI:54009 for Mollweide projection
Fixed CRS handling in MultiBufferDistancesNativeWorkflow
Fixed road network CRS issues across multiple workflows

UI & UX Fixes

Fixed duplicate QMessageBox on OSM download error (was showing both error and cancelled messages)
Fixed banner text rendering and button styling issues
Fixed AttributeError in RoadNetworkPanel by reordering attribute initialization
Open existing project no longer incorrectly shows women's options dialog

Data & Workflow Fixes

Fixed mask layer creation with proper geometry validation and commitChanges
Fixed road network and data persistence checks
Fixed raster layer validation in _subset_raster_layer with clear error messages
Reverted multi_buffer_distances_native_workflow to stable v1.2.6 implementation

✨ New Features

GHSL Integration

Automatic GHSL download fallback - Workflows automatically download Global Human Settlement Layer data if missing
ensure_ghsl_data() method for workflows that need settlement data
GHSL download failure warning during project creation with user prompt to continue or abort

Enhanced Reporting

Dimension and factor map pages added to analysis summary report
Exclude unused indicators (analysis_mode="Do Not Use") from reports
Improved execution time display - Shows "Not run" instead of "None min" for unexecuted indicators

Progress & Feedback

Progress bar updates during batch operations showing real-time processing progress
Status label showing current workflow step
Raster layer validation with helpful error messages before processing begins

🎯 UI Improvements

Improved banner text rendering and refined button styling throughout
Updated font sizing for women's considerations section in Create Project Panel
Move EPLEX Score to contextual dimension only
Auto-balance weights under dimension for easier configuration
Better OSM download error messages showing actual network error details

🔧 Code Quality

Google-style docstrings - All docstrings converted to consistent format
Qt threading migration - Replaced Python threading with Qt threading (QMutex, QThread, QThreadPool) for better QGIS integration
GitHub CI improvements - Black version pinned to 25.x to match local development environment
Comprehensive error handling and logging improvements throughout

📦 Previous 1.3.0 Changes (included)

These changes from the development cycle are also included:

OSM download: Added spinner animation and improved error feedback
Reintegrated ORS v0.6 as routing option
Education factor now uses index score with GHSL
Fixed workflows stopping after 1 factor under dimension
Added local caching for Ookla parquet files
Dynamic font sizing improvements

📋 Upgrade Notes

Backup existing projects before upgrading
Project files may need recreation due to dictionary key changes from WEE to GeoE3
Check grid_creation_workers setting if you have memory constraints (default is optimized for most systems)
Existing layer groups named "WEE" will appear alongside new "GeoE3" groups - consider cleaning up old layers