Install gdal using conda?

Question

I used

conda install gdal

to install the GDAL packages. But I had the following error when importing the packages.

>>> from osgeo import gdal
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
    _gdal = swig_import_helper()
  File "/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py", line 17, in swig_import_helper
    _mod = imp.load_module('_gdal', fp, pathname, description)
ImportError: dlopen(/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/_gdal.so, 2): Library not loaded: libgdal.20.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/_gdal.so
  Reason: image not found
>>> from osgeo import ogr
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
    _gdal = swig_import_helper()
  File "/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py", line 17, in swig_import_helper
    _mod = imp.load_module('_gdal', fp, pathname, description)
ImportError: dlopen(/Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/_gdal.so, 2): Library not loaded: libgdal.20.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/danqing0703/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/osgeo/_gdal.so
  Reason: image not found

What should I do to have GDAL imported in Python?

Answer 1

For windows users (as of December 2015):

conda install gdal
conda upgrade numpy

Installing gdal will downgrade numpy, so then upgrade it back up. I recently had occasion to use windows for a change and I was pleasantly surprised that gdal "works" easily now.

Windows+python+gis people worldwide should be celebrating this. (that gdal-python goes in easily on windows...not that windows is one step closer to linux ;) )

Answer 2

I just made the mistake of executing the previously proposed command in the base environment of Conda:

conda install -c conda-forge gdal

This took ages to "solve environment" and, in the end, found numerous conflicts which halted the installation.

Given that, I instead created a separate environment with:

conda create -n gdal python=3.8

And activated it with:

conda activate gdal

And then executed the first command (as well as all others listed in the documentation). This worked fast and without any errors.