GDAL and Python
===============

.. _gdal-python:

`GDAL <https://gdal.org/>`_ is a library for geospatial data processing. It is used by many GIS (Geographic Information System) software to read and write geospatial data. It is also used by many satellite image processing software.

.. warning::
    It is quite common to encounter difficulties in installing this package. Here are some tips for installing it on your machine.

    To install the GDAL package, you can try ``pip install GDAL`` or you can start by
    downloading the desired version from this `website <https://github.com/cgohlke/geospatial-wheels/releases>`_  and
    then install it using "pip install myfile.whl" where myfile.whl corresponds to the downloaded file.

    Please use a **64-bit** version of Python and GDAL (`GDAL-x.x.x-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl`).

    `Direct link for GDAL 3.8.4 <https://github.com/cgohlke/geospatial-wheels/releases/download/v2024.2.18/GDAL-3.8.4-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl>`_

.. note::
    If you are using a conda environment, you can install GDAL using the following command:

    ``conda install -c conda-forge gdal``

You can check the installation by typing:

``gdalinfo --version``

in a command prompt. If all is fine, you should see the version of GDAL installed.