Naty Clementi - Ibis + DuckDB geospatial: a match made on Earth | SciPy 2024

Ibis + DuckDB provides fast geospatial data processing capabilities without being limited by RAM constraints, allowing analysis of large datasets on a laptop

DuckDB recently added support to read directly from GeoParquet files and includes built-in geospatial functions like buffer, within, and intersect operations

The combination leverages established geospatial libraries (GEOS, GDAL, Proj) rather than reinventing functionality

DuckDB’s performance improvements have made operations 3-25x faster in the last three years, enabling processing of large (20GB+) datasets in seconds instead of hours

Ibis provides a Python-like interface to work with geospatial data while executing operations through DuckDB, offering familiar DataFrame-style syntax

No dedicated server required - DuckDB operates as an in-process analytical database file on your laptop

Supports 50+ geospatial data formats and 30+ geospatial operations

Integration with visualization tools like Lombard enables easy mapping and plotting of geospatial data

Can mix geospatial data with regular tables for complex analytical queries

Use cases include location-based services, environmental monitoring, infrastructure planning, and site selection optimization