FW: #maptimeDavis Workshop: Spatial SQL
Michele M Tobias
Hi geospatial and Davis R Users Group folks!
I recently updated the Spatial SQL workshop to work with the latest tools, and I highly encourage you to come learn because we don’t teach this one very often. It’s this Friday from 10:00-12:00 in the DataLab Conference room. (Details below.)
Why do you want to learn SQL?
You know how filling out interface forms in QGIS gets old really fast? Especially when you keep making a mistake and having to re-run it? (Personal experience… last week.) Or dealing with all the files created by the intermediate steps in your workflow? Learning SQL can fix all of that.
“But programming makes me nervous.” That’s totally understandable. Many people find SQL to be fairly intuitive. Come try it out in a no pressure environment. Learning SQl might just make learning other languages easier.
“I already know R and/or Python.” Great! You can use SQL in both of those to query data very efficiently. We’ll use QGIS to learn in this workshop, but you can easily load SQL-based packages to work with it in your chosen language.
Another good reason is that it is another skill to add to your resume.
Have I convinced you? See the forwarded email for details. I hope we’ll see you there! And please send me questions (yes, we’ll try to record, but that hasn’t gone well lately).
Best,
Michele
Michele Tobias, PhD
Geospatial Data Specialist
Scholarly Resources
UC Davis Library
370 Shields Library
ORCID: 0000-0002-2954-8710
Pronouns: she, her, hers
From: geospatial Sympa List (request) <geospatia...@lists.ucdavis.edu>
On Behalf Of Matthew Conner
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2026 1:33 PM
To: geospatial Sympa List <geosp...@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: [geospatial] #maptimeDavis Workshop: Spatial SQL
Spatial SQL
Date: 5/29/2026 10:00-12:00
Location: DataLab Conference Room - room 362 Shields Library
Description: This workshop is intended to give participants an introduction to working with spatial data using SQL -- a database querying language. We will work with a graphical user interface (GUI) and explore some examples of common analysis processes as well as present participants with resources for continued learning. This workshop will give participants a solid foundation on which to build further learning. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to import data into a spatialite database, write queries to answer questions about spatial data, understand the difference between attribute queries and geometry queries, view spatial tables and views in QGIS, and use terminology related to spatial databases to facilitate future learning.
Speaker: Alex Mandel, Michele Tobias, Naomi Kalman, Holden Tal
This workshop will be taught by a team of instructors who use spatial SQL in their work and research.
Prerequisites: No prior experience is required, but familiarity with spatial data formats (raster and vector) is recommended.
Software Required: QGIS: available for all major computer operating systems at qgis.org
Whenever possible, #maptimeDavis Workshops will be recorded and posted on our YouTube Channel, however, work sessions are not recorded. Weekly reminders will be sent on the Geospatial Email List.
#maptimeDavis is a community of practice, sponsored by UC Davis DataLab & UC Davis Library. Please send questions to Michele Tobias mmto...@ucdavis.edu
Matt Conner
Student Services Department
Library
University of California, Davis
on behalf of the #maptimeDavis council