2025-10-21 –, UVM Alumni House Silver Pavilon
Do you know where your data is? It's time to unlock the real power of location with Python. This talk is your practical guide to the open geospatial ecosystem, designed for data practitioners who are ready to turn location data into meaningful insights.
We'll cover the end-to-end workflow: from acquiring open data to performing powerful spatial joins and creating compelling maps. You will learn to use core libraries like GeoPandas and Shapely, and finally demystify one of the trickiest parts of geospatial work: coordinate reference systems.
This session is for data scientists, analysts, and engineers familiar with pandas who want to add a powerful new dimension to their work. You’ll leave with a clear, actionable roadmap for integrating geospatial analysis into your projects.
This talk fills a crucial gap for some in the PyData community by providing a bridge from traditional tabular analysis to the world of geospatial data. It focuses exclusively on the open-source stack, demonstrating how familiar tools like pandas can be extended with libraries like GeoPandas and Shapely to solve spatial problems. The content is grounded in practical application, prioritizing common tasks and challenges that practitioners face when first working with location data.
The Target Audience is intermediate-level Python users, such as data scientists, Data Analysts, and Software Engineers. No prior geospatial experience is necessary. This talk is the ideal "first step" for someone who has encountered location data but is unfamiliar with the standard tools and concepts.
Key Takeaways:
What makes data "spatial" (vectors vs. rasters, geometries)?
GeoPandas tasks: reading data, performing spatial joins, and making basic plots.
Awareness of the modern data storage ecosystem, from GeoPackage and PostGIS to the emerging GeoParquet standard for scalable workflows.
Talk Outline:
Why "Where" Matters (3 min)
Vectors & Projections (7 min)
Getting and Storing Your Data (5 min)
Analysis in Practice (7 min)
Scaling Up for Big Data (5 min)
Conclusion & Resources (3 min)
Q&A (10 min)
Stephen Smith is the Interactive Team Manager at GreenInfo Network, where he leads a team of designers, developers, and GIS specialists in building interactive mapping tools, data visualizations, and web applications for public interest organizations. His role bridges technical expertise and client engagement, guiding complex projects from idea to implementation while fostering a collaborative and innovative team culture.