GDAL in Python Virtual Environments on Ubuntu 22.04

January 11, 2025

Introduction

We will be configuring GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) for a Python 3.12 Virtual Environment on Ubuntu 22.04. GDAL is the main underlying library used for raster and vector data in Open Source projects, and we can integrate this professionally into a Python Virtual Environment.

For help installing configuring GDAL for Ubuntu 22.04, read Install and Configure GDAL on Ubuntu 22.04.

Create Python Virtual Environment (VEnv)

Create a Virtual Environment and upgrade the pip package manager. Install GDAL into the VEnv by variablizing the installed GDAL version. For this to work, the CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH and C_INCLUDE_PATH need to have been set when installing GDAL.

python3 -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install GDAL==$(gdal-config --version) --global-option=build_ext --global-option="-I/usr/include/gdal"

Reproject Coordinates using Python

Lets test out Python by reprojecting decimal degree coordinates from San Antonio, Texas from NAD27 (EPSG:4267) to NAD27 State Plane Texas North (EPSG:32040). The GDAL installation actually installs osgeo as the project, and ogr, osr, gdal and more as modules. We always use EPSG codes when working with coordinate systems.

from osgeo import ogr, osr, gdal
if __name__=='__main__':
    # GDAL Version
    print("GDAL: %s" % gdal.__version__)
    #   GDAL: 3.8.4

    # Create Point
    point = ogr.CreateGeometryFromWkt("POINT (29.3703031 -98.6808418)")
    print(point.ExportToWkt())
    #   POINT (29.3703031 -98.6808418)
    
    # Create Spatial References and Transformation (reprojection)
    proj_4267 = osr.SpatialReference()
    proj_4267.ImportFromEPSG(4267)
    proj_32040 = osr.SpatialReference()
    proj_32040.ImportFromEPSG(32040)
    transform = osr.CoordinateTransformation(proj_4267, proj_32040)

    # Reproject Point
    point.Transform(transform)
    print(point.ExportToWkt())
    #   POINT (2101650.98976454 558963.961558342)

Reproject Coordinates using GDAL CLI

Lets reproject the same coordinates using the GDAL CLI for verification

echo -e "-98.6808418 29.3703031 0" | gdaltransform -s_srs EPSG:4267 -t_srs EPSG:32040
# 2101650.98976454 558963.961558342 0