Cloud-Native GIS
Read the part you need, not the file it lives in.
Cloud-native geospatial is one idea applied to every format: lay the bytes out so a reader can fetch the part it needs over HTTP and skip the rest. These guides cover COG, Zarr, GeoParquet and STAC from that angle — what makes a file cloud-optimised, how range requests turn a 1.2 GB scene into a 470 kB read, how lazy loading in xarray defers work until you ask for it, how to size chunks and tiles so the two agree, and where dask genuinely helps rather than adding overhead to a job that was already fast.
Start here
The cornerstone guide — the whole workflow end to end. Everything after it goes deeper into one part of it.
Step 1 Cloud-Native Geospatial Explained: Why the Format Became the API cloud native geospatial explained Begin the path →The full path, in order
14 guides: the concepts underneath the work, then each task, then the errors that task produces. Work down, or jump to the step you need.
- Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF Explained: Tiles, Overviews and Range Requests cloud optimised geotiff explained 🧭 Concept
- How to Read a COG from a URL Without Downloading the Whole File read cog from url python ⚙️ How-To
- Reading a COG from a URL Is Slow or Downloads Everything cog read is slow 🔧 Fix
- How to Write a Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF in Python write cloud optimised geotiff python ⚙️ How-To
- How to Read Spatial Data from S3 and Other Object Storage read spatial data from s3 python ⚙️ How-To
- GDAL Cannot Open an S3 or HTTPS Path gdal cannot open s3 url 🔧 Fix
- Lazy Loading Explained: Why xarray Reads Nothing Until You Ask lazy loading xarray explained 🧭 Concept
- Chunked Arrays and Zarr Explained zarr chunked arrays explained 🧭 Concept
- How to Turn a STAC Search into an xarray Data Cube stac to xarray cube python ⚙️ How-To
- How to Choose Chunk and Tile Sizes That Actually Help choose chunk and tile sizes ⚙️ How-To
- How to Write Partitioned GeoParquet and Query It with Filters partitioned geoparquet python ⚙️ How-To
- How to Scale a GeoPandas Job with dask-geopandas dask geopandas scale python ⚙️ How-To
- dask-geopandas Uses More Memory or Time Than Plain GeoPandas dask geopandas slower than geopandas 🔧 Fix
Topics this path covers
A path is a route; a topic is everything the site has on a subject. Open a topic to see the guides this path skips.