---
title: "Apache Sedona"
url: "https://wherobots.com/apache-sedona/"
description: "Apache Sedona is the open-source distributed spatial engine with 80M+ downloads, created by the founders of Wherobots. Learn what it is and how it scales."
published: "2024-09-30"
modified: "2026-10-06"
---

# Apache Sedona

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/logo.svg?ver=1791575225)

## Apache Sedona

Apache Sedona is the most widely deployed **open-source distributed spatial engine** in the world, with 80M+ downloads. It runs on Apache Spark and Apache Flink.

[Try Apache Sedona On Wherobots Cloud](https://login.cloud.wherobots.com/sign-up)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/bg-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

2,000,000   Downloads per month

80,000,000   Number of downloads

2,200   Stars on github

200%   Year over year growth

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/bg.png?ver=1791575225)

## The Open Source Solution for High-Performance Geospatial ETL & Analytics

Apache Sedona extends distributed compute frameworks to add support for spatial data types, spatial indexing, and efficient spatial query processing using Spatial SQL and Python.

With over 300 vector and raster Spatial SQL functions and support for multiple distributed compute engines including Apache Spark, Apache Flink, and Snowflake, as well as a purpose built engine in Rust with SedonaDB, Apache Sedona brings the most comprehensive support of Spatial SQL, python, R and Scala to parallel and scalable data processing environments.

Wherobots was founded by Jia Yu and Mo Sarwat, the researchers who created Apache Sedona at Arizona State University.

![Apache Sedona Architecture](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/sed.svg?ver=1791575225)

## Get started

The easiest way to get started is by using the official Apache Sedona Docker image

```
docker run apache/sedona:latest
```

Apache Sedona can be run in many different cloud platforms including:

[![Docker](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1-3.svg?ver=1791575225) Docker](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/setup/docker/) [![Wherobots Cloud](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2-3.svg?ver=1791575225) Wherobots Cloud](https://cloud.wherobots.com/) [![AWS EMR](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/3-3.svg?ver=1791575225) AWS EMR](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/setup/emr/) [![Databricks](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/4-3.svg?ver=1791575225) Databricks](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/setup/databricks/) [![microsoft fabric](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/5-3.svg?ver=1791575225) microsoft fabric](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/setup/fabric/) [![aws glue](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/6-3.svg?ver=1791575225) aws glue](https://sedona.apache.org/latest-snapshot/setup/glue/) [![Snowflake](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/7-1.svg?ver=1791575225) Snowflake](https://app.snowflake.com/marketplace/listing/GZTYZF0RTY3/wherobots-sedonasnow) [![spark cluster](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/8-1.svg?ver=1791575225) spark cluster](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/setup/cluster/)

## learn more

Leverage resources to learn more about using Apache Sedona to solve your large-scale spatial data problems.

[![We're going through exciting new features in SedonaDB (Rust) 0.4. James Willis, one of the Sedona committers, is hopping on to walk through what he's been building. On the agenda: - conda-forge packaging - Python DataFrame API plus an R dplyr interface - Geography support - GPU-accelerated spatial join - Parquet improvements and more spatial function coverage - New raster infrastructure](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: July 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf4wjRws1Ww)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: July 2026

[![We recap what shipped in Apache Sedona 1.9, including the Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF writer, the new PROJ-based CRS engine, and Bing tile functions. We then preview SedonaDB 0.4 with GPU-accelerated spatial join on ray tracing cores, geography joins on a sphere, the sedona-gdal crate, and raster predicates for tile pruning. The session closes with a sneak peek at Sedona 1.9.1 (geography type in Sedona Spark, Box2D, Box3D, and more raster support), community resources, and Q&A. 00:00 Intro, agenda, and Sedona community growth 01:31 Where Sedona runs and the system architecture 04:12 SedonaDB Rust overview and how to install 05:44 Release cadence and what shipped in Sedona 1.9 10:01 Cloud optimized GeoTIFF and Bing tile functions 13:09 New CRS support with PROJ 14:12 SedonaDB 0.4 preview and GPU spatial join 18:52 Geography spatial join on a sphere 21:09 GDAL foundation and raster predicate pushdown 24:31 Sedona 1.9.1 preview: geography, Box2D, Box3D, raster 31:24 Community: book, contributing, and sharing your story 33:30 Q&A and Databricks Summit](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: June 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZxi_pP0Oyk)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: June 2026

[![Topics include: - Recent Apache Sedona 1.9.0 release with a focus on its raster functionalities - Upcoming SedonaDB release’s new features such as GPU accelerated spatial join](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: May 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHaVSDeSH_o)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: May 2026

[![During this office hour, we'll coverthe features of a number of releases across the Apache Sedona ecosystem including - Apache Sedona 1.8.1 - SedonaDB 0.2.0 - SpatialBench 0.1.0 00:00 Welcome and agenda 00:44 Apache Sedona ecosystem overview and stats 01:55 Sedona architecture: Spark, Flink, Snowflake, SedonaDB 05:02 Release cadence and recent releases 05:56 Sedona 1.9 highlights: Spark 4.1 and new CRS engine 07:41 Sedona 1.9: cloud optimized GeoTIFF writer 08:21 Sedona 1.9: Bing tile functions and auto-tiling raster data source 09:43 Sedona 1.9: new geometry functions, GeoParquet, and GeoPandas API 11:48 SedonaDB 0.4 preview: GPU spatial joins, geography type, GDAL raster 15:38 SedonaDB 0.4: geography joins with S2 cells and raster-vector interop 18:45 Guest talk: geography type coming to Sedona Spark 1.9.1 19:46 Why geography matters: anti-meridian, geodesic distance, polar regions 25:07 New geography ST functions and join predicates 27:43 Under the hood: lazy serialization and S2 indexing 30:22 How geography spatial joins work in Spark 33:16 Benchmark: geography vs. geometry performance 39:22 Free Sedona book, community resources, and how to contribute](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: February 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxnndx1Vdgk)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: February 2026

[![Topics covered: • Apache Sedona 1.8.1 • SedonaDB 0.2.0 • SpatialBench 0.1.0 0:00 Introduction 3:57 What Is SedonaDB? 6:59 Apache Sedona Community Growth 9:50 Sedona Flink SQL Module for Enhanced Flink Integration 11:40 STAC Authentication Support in Python & Scala APIs 13:57 ST_ApproximateMedialAxis & ST_StraightSkeleton: Why They Matter 19:24 SpatialBench Overview: Components & Results 22:19 Sedona Performance Benchmarks: Databricks Serverless SQL vs. Sedona 28:03 SedonaDB Demo Spatial Query Benchmarking on Databricks with SpatialBench: https://sedona.apache.org/latest/blog/2026/01/08/spatial-query-benchmarking-databricks/](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: January 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_vqQNl8Iww)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: January 2026

[![Topics covered: - Highlights from the new Apache Sedona 1.8 release - A sneak peek at what’s next in Apache Sedona 1.8.1 - Latest status report on ST_Transform for better accuracy - ST_Transform in SedonaDB explanation and live demo Check out the Cloud Native Geospatial Analytics with Apache Sedona: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: November 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSKHQ0KZ8QQ)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: November 2025

[![We’re celebrating Apache Sedona 1.8.0 release and the launch of SedonaDB & SpatialBench with a special Apache Sedona Community Office Hour! Here’s what we’ll cover: - What’s new in Apache Sedona 1.8.0 - The launch of SedonaDB with examples & demos - A deep dive into SpatialBench and its design Check out SedonaDB here: https://sedona.apache.org/sedonadb/latest/](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: October 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URlZkhmWRdk)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: October 2025

[![In this session, we'll cover: - New Area of Interest API in ST_Transform - GeoPandas API progress - Sneak peek at 1.8.0 release - Geography type support update - New Well-Known Locations library](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: September 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leMja0re6Ok)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: September 2025

[![Features of Sedona 1.8.0 covered: - GeoPandas API for Sedona - Running Sedona on PyFlink - Comprehensive Spark 4.0 support - Geography type integration Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: July 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehxOyv4-dX8)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: July 2025

[![During this office hour, we covered the upcoming Apache Sedona 1.8.0 release: - GeoPandas API on Sedona - Sedona on PyFlink - Spark 4.0 support - Sedona vectorized Python UDF - GeoParquet, and Parquet Geo types 0:00 Introduction 2:11 Overview of Sedona System Architecture 6:45 What’s new in 1.7.1 release 10:26 OpenStreetMap PBF Reader 12:44 Sneak Peak: Sedona 1.7.2 Release 13:35 Looking Ahead: Sedona 1.8.0 Release 16:56 Why We’re Support Java 11 21:11 Example of PyFlink Support 22:38 Overview of GeoParquet 24:30 What is Apache Iceberg? 27:12 Working With Iceberg Geo Types 33:49 Working With Parquet Geo Types 35:44 Final Thoughts & Q&A Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: June 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDePyI7KHdo)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: June 2025

[![For this month's office hour, we covered: - Broadcast join support for distributed KNN Join - STAC catalog & OpenStreetMap (OSM) PBF reader - Preview of 1.8.0: GeoPandas API, PyFlink support & Spark 4.0 compatibility - Live demo: Using Sedona with Overture Maps data Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: May 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SAevgAbC40)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: May 2025

[![This month, we covered Sedona 1.7.1 release: - SQL interface for GeoStats (ST_DBSCAN, ST_GLocal, ST_LocalOutlierFactor) - Broadcast join support for distributed KNN Join - STAC catalog & OpenStreetMap (OSM) PBF reader - New ST functions like ST_RemoveRepeatedPoints 0:00 Introduction 2:27 Sedona System Architecture 8:21 What’s New in Sedona 1.7.1 Release 10:50 GeoSTATS 12:25 Broadcast kNN Join 14:59 OpenStreetMap PBF Reader 17:16 GeoParquet with Balanced Partitioning 20:09 GeoArrow Support in Sedona DataFrame 21:31 Faster Rasterization 24:14 STAC Catalog reader - Feng Zhang 29:07 STAC Item Schema 30:57 DF/SQL Filter Pushdown 34:38 Example: Using STAC Reader with Your Notebook 42:33 Q&A Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: April 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WajmTmv_R3Y)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour: April 2025

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. Topics covered: What’s new in Sedona 1.7.0 - KNN Join - GeoStats - DataFrame readers (shapefiles, GeoPackage). Will potentially invite Kristin to give a presentation about the Shapefile reader Features in upcoming new 1.7.1 release - GeoStats SQL interface - STAC reader - Iceberg Geo reader / writer in Sedona - Parquet Geo reader / writer in Sedona Community development - Improvement on docs - Enable GitHub discussion - Encourage to use GitHub issues instead of JIRA Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – March 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI98lQSOFXk)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – March 2025

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we cover: * What’s new in Sedona 1.7.0: KNN Join, GeoStats, DataFrame readers * Features in the upcoming new 1.7.1 release: GeoStats SQL interface and bug fixes * Community development: Documentation improvements and GitHub discussion Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – February 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCxF_mUa3fg)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – February 2025

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we cover: * How to utilize the KNN Join * Deep dive into GeoStats * More about DataFrame-based readers Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – December 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceTBr1rY-z4)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – December 2024

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we cover: * Sedona 1.7.0 release * KNN Join * GeoStats: scalable spatial statistics toolbox * DataFrame-based readers Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – November 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXF9bWEjefc)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – November 2024

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we cover: * Sedona 1.6.1 release * KNN Join * Native file readers and writers * Sedona 1.7.0 release timeline Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – September 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsFN_LpnJQ8)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hours – September 2024

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we covered: * The timeline for the next release 1.6.1 * GeoParquet 1.1, including attribute support * New ST functions Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – August 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKry_q_-N0I)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – August 2024

[![Each month we host the Apache Sedona community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. This month we covered: * Getting started with the Apache Sedona Docker image * An overview of the Apache Sedona 1.6.0 release * Upcoming features in the the 1.6.1 release * A call for help with Sedona documentation Download the O’Reilly book: https://bit.ly/3T9DqGa Join Apache Sedona Discord channel to engage with the community: https://bit.ly/460BSWG](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – June 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNSg7HwUmD4)

Apache Sedona Community Office Hour – June 2024

[![Each month we host the community office hour as a way to connect the Apache Sedona community and cover the latest project updates, a focus topic presentation, time for open discussion and Q&A, and information on the roadmap and future plans. It’s an excellent opportunity for the community to engage and contribute to Apache Sedona’s development. This time we'll be covering: * What's new in Apache Sedona 1.5.2 * What's new in Apache Sedona 1.6.0 * Apache SIS integration * Creating Sedona User Defined Functions (UDFs) with Shapely, Rasterio, and NumPy](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Apache Sedona Office Hours – May 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx93MteFaz4)

Apache Sedona Office Hours – May 2024

## Connect with Apache Sedona across platforms and networks.

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/11-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Github

The Apache Sedona GitHub repository is the home of Sedona’s open-source code

[visit our github](https://github.com/apache/sedona)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/22-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Follow Apache Sedona On X

Keep up to date with important announcements and links to new technical content

[follow us on X](https://x.com/ApacheSedona)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/33-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Connect On LinkedIn

Find new events and announcements from the community on LinkedIn

[follow us on LINKEDIN](https://www.linkedin.com/company/apache-sedona/)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/44-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Apache Sedona YouTube Videos

Watch tutorials, livestreams, webinar recordings, and more on YouTube

[VISIT OUR YOUTUBE](https://www.youtube.com/@wherobots)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/55-1.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### dockerhub

The official Apache Sedona Docker image is the easiest way to get started with Apache Sedona

[VISIT OUR DOCKERHUB](https://hub.docker.com/r/apache/sedona)

## Review the latest on Apache Sedona across docs, blogs, and release notes.

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/13.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Apache Sedona Documentation

Find tutorials and reference docs in the official Apache Sedona documentation

[Check sedona Documentation](https://sedona.apache.org/latest/tutorial/sql/)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/23.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### Apache Sedona On The Wherobots Blog

Many of the posts on the Wherobots blog are technical examples using Apache Sedona

[Check our Blog](https://wherobots.com/blog/?category=apache-sedona)

![](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/333.svg?ver=1791575225)

###### release notes

Keep up to date with new features in each release in Apache Sedona’s release notes

[Check our Release notes](https://sedona.apache.org/1.6.0/setup/release-notes/)

## Get Involved

Join the Apache Sedona community and be a part of the modern geospatial analytics ecosystem. There are many ways to be involved.

[![Learn how to use our new Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to streamline your spatial data workflows. This allows you to interact with your spatial catalogs and databases directly through an AI agent. In this walkthrough, we cover: - Catalog Exploration: Watch the MCP server navigate hierarchies to find specific datasets (like NYC Taxi data) across professional and custom catalogs. - Data Introspection: Perform live queries against massive datasets to get instant insights, such as counting 185 million taxi pickups in seconds. - Agentic Q&A: See how the server handles complex natural language requests, like finding "burger joints near the Space Needle," by inferring locations and schemas automatically. - Notebook Generation: Learn how to use the MCP server to write and validate Python/Jupyter notebooks for heavy-duty spatial joins and large-scale data processing in Wherobots Cloud. Try the MCP server: https://docs.wherobots.com/develop/mcp/mcp-server-installation 0:00 – Introduction to the Wherobots MCP Server 0:25 – Catalog Exploration: Searching for spatial datasets 1:40 – Data Exploration: Running live queries against the database 3:11 – Agentic Q&A: Natural language spatial searches (Space Needle Example) 4:40 – Generating Jupyter Notebooks for large-scale processing 6:45 – Security & Permissions: Understanding the auto-approval step 7:55 – Model Choice: Why Claude 4.5 Sonnet is recommended 9:10 – Running the generated notebook in Whereabouts Cloud 10:40 – Final thoughts and how to get started](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Wherobots MCP Server Demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_AFhkjhflk)

Wherobots MCP Server Demo

[![🚀 Get started and sign up at https://wherobots.com In this video, we introduce you to the Wherobots platform, kicking off a series of tutorials designed to familiarize you with its powerful tools and capabilities. Whether you're exploring this video on YouTube or embedded within our notebook environment, this guide ensures you’re set up for success. What You'll Learn: - An overview of the Wherobots Cloud platform. - How to navigate the series of notebooks designed for onboarding. - Essential steps to get started and maximize the platform’s potential. Who Is This For? - New users looking to learn the basics of Whereabouts Cloud. - Professionals exploring geospatial tools for scalable data integration and analysis. - Developers and analysts eager to harness the power of modern geospatial technologies. 💡 Next Steps: If you’re watching on YouTube, visit the platform to dive into the interactive notebooks. Already on the platform? Awesome! Follow along to enhance your learning experience. 📌 Stay tuned for upcoming videos in this series as we delve deeper into the advanced functionalities of Whereabouts Cloud. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share if you found this video helpful! Sign up for / Get Started Wherobots for free: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Geospatial Python: Raster and vector data loading in Apache Sedona \[Tutorial\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrcXIlf5go)

Geospatial Python: Raster and vector data loading in Apache Sedona \[Tutorial\]

[![Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your geospatial data? This webinar is designed for professionals and enthusiasts who want to take their geospatial analytics to the next level. Whether you’re just starting out or already working with spatial data, you’ll learn how to leverage the powerful tools and workflows in Wherobots Cloud to analyze, visualize, and interpret geospatial datasets. From setting up your account to mastering advanced analytics, this session will give you actionable insights and hands-on experience. Sign up for / Get Started Wherobots for free: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Wherobots 101: Mastering Scalable Geospatial Data Processing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN5u78LO1DU)

Wherobots 101: Mastering Scalable Geospatial Data Processing

[![Follow along for an in-depth webinar on efficiently loading, managing, and analyzing raster and vector data in Wherobots' hosted environment. Whether you're working with massive geospatial datasets or looking for optimized workflows to write and query GeoParquet and Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs), this session will equip you with the tools and techniques to scale your geospatial analysis. In this session, we will walk through two different tutorials: 1) For the first tutorial, you can use the community edition to follow along. If you haven’t already, you can create your account here: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe 2) For the second tutorial, you will need a Wherobots Pro tier account, which you can sign up through the AWS Marketplace with $400 in free credits: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-ndy62v6hhwrne?sr=0-1&ref_=beagle&applicationId=AWSMPContessa Sign up for / Get Started Wherobots for free: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Wherobots 102: Reading and Processing Cloud Native Geospatial Data](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmM5xB1x-F4)

Wherobots 102: Reading and Processing Cloud Native Geospatial Data

[![In this session, you'll learn how to seamlessly integrate Python and Wherobots to perform advanced spatial joins and analyses on geospatial data. Webinar Highlights: - Learn how to join datasets using spatial predicates like ST_Intersects to combine facilities with administrative boundaries—ensuring only relevant spatial relationships are processed. - See how to leverage the powerful ST_AKNN function to efficiently find the k-nearest neighbors for each facility. We’ll explore a Pythonic approach to identify the closest centroids to your facilities, ensuring a highly optimized query without the overhead of expensive cross joins. - Understand how to apply spatial filters to extract a targeted subset of your data. We'll walk through filtering facilities that fall within a specified geographic boundary. - Explore strategies like repartitioning by geohash to improve performance and reduce data shuffling during spatial joins, making your spatial queries scalable for large datasets. - Finally, learn how to visualize your spatial join results interactively using SedonaKepler and SedonaPyDeck, turning complex geospatial data into actionable insights with rich, interactive maps. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 03:01 Introduction to Wherobots, Apache Sedona and product architecture 08:16 Performance benchmarks: Wherobots vs. Sedona, BigQuery and Snowflake 09:55 Create account and get started with Wherobots | Start a notebook, setting runtime, adding Python libraries, cloud storage, and spatial catalog 18:40 Start demo | Connect to runtime and notebook, importing functions from PySpark 20:48 Load data | Polygons from Overture Maps and points from Foursquare Open Places Dataset 23:49 Standard Spatial Join (Pythonic Approach) 27:32 Spatial aggregate | Efficiently count points in each polygon 29:13 K Nearest Neighbor Join 37:22 Advanced optimization techniques | Cluster data using Geohash 47:28 Visualize Spatial Join results with SedonaKepler and SedonaPyDeck 48:11 Summary and Q&A Sign up for / Get Started Wherobots for free: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Spatial Joins at Scale: Unlocking Advanced Geospatial Analytics with Wherobots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptyCvtVysNY)

Spatial Joins at Scale: Unlocking Advanced Geospatial Analytics with Wherobots

[![Zonal statistics—like calculating average elevation or temperature over custom geometries—is one of the most powerful ways to combine raster and vector data. But when it comes to scaling up beyond a few polygons, traditional GIS tools often hit a wall. In this live session, we’ll show you how Wherobots makes large-scale zonal stats simple, fast, and scalable using RS_ZonalStats, a powerful function built for modern spatial SQL. You’ll see how easy it is to load vector features (like buildings or land parcels) and join them with cloud-hosted raster layers to compute meaningful insights—without slowdowns. We’ll walk through: - How to prepare and load both raster and vector data - Using RS_ZonalStats to compute min, max, mean, and more - A real-world demo with Overture Maps and elevation data from AWS - Tips for optimizing and scaling your raster analysis workflows Whether you’re analyzing terrain, land cover, or climate data, this is your shortcut to making raster analysis work at any scale. 0:00 Introduction 4:38 Overview of RS_ZonalStatsAll and ST_Isochrones 7:48 Set up 10:17 Spatial join between raster and polygon dataset 13:15 Accessing and preparing raster data 18:59 Load isoochrone polygons from Iceberg 21:16 Compute zonal statistics 26:05 Results and efficiency 28:41 Further exploration and Q&A Sign up for / Get Started Wherobots for free: https://bit.ly/3Q9PcPe](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Scaling Zonal Statistics: Fast Raster + Vector Joins with Wherobots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI6_PsBobyA)

Scaling Zonal Statistics: Fast Raster + Vector Joins with Wherobots

[![Ask Waldo a question about the physical world in plain English. Waldo, the AI agent from Wherobots, finds the right data in your catalog, asks what “best” means, maps the answer, ranks the results, and turns the work into a scheduled data pipeline. This video is a real Waldo session, sped up. The question: which parcels across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties are the best sites for single-family subdivisions and for 100 MW AI data centers, and who is the recorded owner? In this session, Waldo: • Found a saved five-county screen in the catalog with 16,385 housing candidates and 887 data-center candidates • Asked three questions before ranking anything • Mapped the top 10 sites for each use, including the data center leads against power lines tagged 115 kV and up • Ranked both lists with acreage, zoning and the recorded owner • Planned a weekly update and a monthly reconciliation, created both schedules paused for review, and ran one pilot of each (both succeeded) Waldo works with maps, satellite imagery, and your data. It runs on Wherobots, built by the original creators of Apache Sedona.](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Waldo, Spatial AI Agent by Wherobots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHdkYK2BKps)

Waldo, Spatial AI Agent by Wherobots

[![Ask Waldo a question about the physical world in plain English. Waldo, the AI agent from Wherobots, finds the right data in your catalog, asks what “best” means, maps the answer, ranks the results, and turns the work into a scheduled data pipeline. This video is a real Waldo session, sped up. The question: which parcels across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties are the best sites for single-family subdivisions and for 100 MW AI data centers, and who is the recorded owner? In this session, Waldo: • Found a saved five-county screen in the catalog with 16,385 housing candidates and 887 data-center candidates • Asked three questions before ranking anything • Mapped the top 10 sites for each use, including the data center leads against power lines tagged 115 kV and up • Ranked both lists with acreage, zoning and the recorded owner • Planned a weekly update and a monthly reconciliation, created both schedules paused for review, and ran one pilot of each (both succeeded) Waldo works with maps, satellite imagery, and your data. It runs on Wherobots, built by the original creators of Apache Sedona.](https://wherobots.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)     Waldo, Spatial AI Agent by Wherobots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok3XrzylEhc)

Waldo, Spatial AI Agent by Wherobots

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###### Join Our Discord Server

Connect with Apache Sedona Community members in real time to ask questions and share your

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###### Join Our Community Forum

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###### PARTICIPATE IN THE COMMUNITY OFFICE HOURS

Each month the Apache Sedona community hosts an office hour to share important updates, answer questions, and connect with the community

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###### Apache Sedona Issue Tracker

Found a bug? Create an issue in the Apache Sedona JIRA site

[CREATE ISSUE ON JIRA](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/SEDONA)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is Apache Sedona?

Apache Sedona is the most widely deployed open-source distributed spatial engine in the world, with 80M+ downloads. It runs on Apache Spark and Apache Flink and supports spatial SQL, Python, Java, and Scala for processing geometry and raster data at scale.

### Is Apache Sedona open source?

Yes. Apache Sedona is an open-source distributed spatial engine. The code lives on GitHub (2,200 stars on this page’s stats), with an official Docker image, community office hours, and channels on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Discord.

### What is Apache Sedona software?

Apache Sedona is open-source software that extends distributed compute frameworks with spatial data types, spatial indexing, and Spatial SQL and Python capabilities. It also includes an engine purpose built for spatial data on Rust with SedonaDB as well as a framework for benchmarking spatial data processing with SpatialBench. For distributed compute it brings over 300 vector and raster Spatial SQL functions to parallel environments including Apache Spark, Apache Flink, and Snowflake.

### How do I get started with Apache Sedona?

The easiest way to get started with Apache Sedona is to sign up to Wherobots Cloud and use it there directly. It’s fully managed, requires no infrastructure, and runs many times faster and more cost efficiently, especially at scale. And it comes with a built-in data catalog, key features like MCP server integration with VS Code or Claude, and more new capabilities coming every day. Learn about the price performance of WherobotsDB over open source Apache Sedona [here](https://wherobots.com/blog/wherobotsdb-is-3x-faster-with-up-to-45-better-price-performance/).

### Who created Apache Sedona?

Apache Sedona was created by researchers Jia Yu and Mo Sarwat at Arizona State University. They later founded Wherobots. Any Apache Sedona workload runs on Wherobots with zero code changes.

### Can I run Apache Sedona workloads on Wherobots?

Yes. Any Apache Sedona workload runs on Wherobots with zero code changes. See how [Wherobots compares with Apache Sedona](https://wherobots.com/apache-sedona/wherobots-vs-apache-sedona/). You can start from the free trial on this page, or join the Apache Sedona community on Discord to discuss with other members and experts.

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#### Try Apache Sedona on Wherobots

Or join the community to discuss with other members and experts.

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