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Environment Setup

Create a conda environment and install the Python libraries used in this course. The notebooks run in any Jupyter environment; JupyterLab is recommended.

1. Install Conda

Follow the step-by-step Conda Installation Guide (Spatial Thoughts) to install Miniconda for the host operating system.

Official installers: Miniconda — pick Windows, macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon), or Linux.

After installing, restart the terminal (Windows: open Anaconda Prompt or Anaconda Powershell Prompt). Verify:

conda --version

2. Create an environment

(Windows) Search for Anaconda Powershell Prompt and launch it.
(macOS / Linux) Open a Terminal window.

Create a dedicated environment so the workshop stack does not conflict with other projects:

conda create --name geoenv python=3.10 -y
conda activate geoenv

The prompt should now start with (geoenv).

3. Install the workshop packages

Install from conda-forge. Copy the block for the host platform.

Windows (Anaconda Powershell Prompt)

conda install -c conda-forge -y `
  numpy rasterio xarray rioxarray dask `
  pystac-client planetary-computer geopandas pyproj `
  matplotlib jupyterlab ipykernel pandas

macOS / Linux

conda install -c conda-forge -y \
  numpy rasterio xarray rioxarray dask \
  pystac-client planetary-computer geopandas pyproj \
  matplotlib jupyterlab ipykernel pandas

The local environment is now ready.

Option: pip only

Pip-only install (activate geoenv first):

pip install numpy rasterio xarray rioxarray dask pystac-client \
  planetary-computer geopandas pyproj matplotlib jupyterlab ipykernel pandas

Geospatial wheels can be fragile on Windows; conda-forge is the more reliable path.

4. Open the notebooks

From the course repository, with geoenv active:

conda activate geoenv
jupyter lab

In the file browser, open the notebooks/ folder and start with 01-stac-cog.ipynb.

Classic Jupyter Notebook or VS Code / Cursor: Kernel → Change Kernel → geoenv (or the Python interpreter from that environment).

To register the kernel explicitly:

python -m ipykernel install --user --name=geoenv --display-name "Python (geoenv)"

5. Check that it works

In a notebook or python prompt:

import pystac_client
import planetary_computer
import rasterio
import rioxarray
import xarray
import dask

print("Ready")

A Ready print confirms the stack. Continue with Lesson 1.