Pre-Mission Briefing & Technical Setup

In order to ensure the proper development of the workshops, we ask you to verify that your laptop has the necessary technical setup to process the working files and programming environments that will be used in the applied sessions. 

Minimum required components:

• Python 3.10 o higher.
• pip enables as the package manager.
• JupyterLab correctly installed and functioning properly.
• Required libraries:
  • Land Cover and Land Use and Urban Atlas: geopandas, pyogrio, shapely, unidecode, rasterio, numpy, pandas, matplotlib, gdown, seaborn, zipfile.
  • Coastal monitoring: rioxarray, xarray, netCDF4, scipy, geopandas, numpy, pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, shapely.

Important Note:

Participants who regulary use Python, Conda, or other equivalent development enviroments do not need to carry out and addictional installation, provided that their existing setup meets the following requirements:

• Open JupyterLab correctly.
• Run notebooks without issues.
• Have the specific dependencies required for the correspondeng workshop.

If you need support to prepare or validate your environment, we hace made prior technical support resocurces available.

3.1 Tutorials and support materials

Before requiesting assistance, we suggest reviewing the tutorials and supplementary resources included at the end of this page.

3.2. Technical support by email

We have enables a technical support channel for specific inquiries related to environment preparation:

Support E-mail: Please contact Mr. Boris Leighton at boris.leighton@copernicuslac-chile.eu 

If you contact us, we recommend including a brief description of the issue, the operating system you are using, and, if possible, a screenshot of the error message.

3.3. Live consultation and review sessions

In addition, two optional remote technical support sessions (30 minutes each) have been arranged at different times: 

Thrusday 11 June, 3:00 p.m. (Santiago, Chile, CLT UTC-4)
1:00 p.m.: Belize.
2:00 p.m.: Colombia, Jamaica, Panama.
3:00 p.m.: Santiago, Chile (CLT), Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Brazil (Brasilia/São Paulo), Dominica, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago.
4:00 p.m.: Argentina, Uruguay.

Join this Zoom meeting at: https://uchile.zoom.us/j/95501284800?pwd=moko6Ck5w5aTSZqmQQ4JWcaUKG25DW.1 

Meeting chat link at: https://uchile.zoom.us/launch/jc/95501284800 

Meeting ID: 955 0128 4800 

Passcode: 364014 

 

Friday 12 June, 10:00 a.m. (Santiago, Chile, CLT UTC-4)
08:00 a.m.: Belize.
09:00 a.m.: Colombia, Jamaica, Panama.
10:00 a.m.: Santiago, Chile (CLT), Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Brazil (Brasilia/São Paulo), Dominica, Guyana, Saint Lucía, Trinidad and Tobago.
11:00 a.m.: Argentina, Uruguay.

Join this Zoom meeting at: https://uchile.zoom.us/j/98733887562?pwd=SnACzO63gh3fJ26TuqkHbkn3kU7urF.1 

Meeting chat link at: https://uchile.zoom.us/launch/jc/98733887562 

Meeting ID: 987 3388 7562 

Passcode: 489427 

 

These sessions will be aimed at resolving questions, reviewing installations, and supporting the final validation of the environment before the trip.

 

Below is a general step-by-step guide for installing the required base components. 

4.1. Verify Python instalation

Open your terminal or command prompt and run:
python --version

You should see Python version 3.10 or higher. 

If the command does not respond correctly, it will be necessary to install Python in advance from Python.org.

 

4.2. Create a virtual environment

We recommend working in an independent virtual environment to avoid conflicts with other installations present on your computer. 

Run:
python -m venv bm

This will create a virtual environment in a folder called bm. 

 

4.3. Activate the virtual environment

Depending on your operating system:

On Windows:

Command Prompt (CMD):
\bm\Scripts\activate.bat

PowerShell: 
.\bm\Scripts\Activate.ps1

 Git Bash: 
source bm/Scripts/activate

 

On macOS or Linux
source bm/bin/activate

Technical observation: On some institution-managed Windows devices, PowerShell may restrict script execution. If that happens, use Command Prompt (CMD) or Git Bash, or contact local IT support. 

 

4.4. Install JupyterLab

With the virtual environment active, run: 

pip install jupyterlab

This process will install JupyterLab and its main dependencies.

Technical observation: On some institution-managed Windows devices, PowerShell may restrict script execution. If that happens, use Command Prompt (CMD) or Git Bash, or contact local IT support. 

 

4.5. Run JupyterLab

To verify that the installation was completed correctly, run:
jupyter lab

If everything is correct, JupyterLab will open in your web browser. 

 

4.6. Alternative for users working with Conda

Those who use Anaconda or Miniconda can install JupyterLab with: 

conda install -c conda-forge jupyterlab

 

4.7. Why do we recommend a virtual environment?

Using virtual environments makes it possible to isolate the dependencies required for the event and reduce compatibility problems among Python versions, libraries, and other previous installations. 

In practical terms, this offers three advantages: 

• It avoids conflicts with previous configurations on your computer. 
• It facilitates a controlled and reversible installation. 
• It improves the stability of the environment during the practical sessions.

For participants who wish to deepen their understanding of specific aspects of the working environment or resolve particular technical questions, we suggest consulting the following resources curated by our team: 

Official documentation: Jupyter Installation Guide

The definitive technical reference for advanced installation procedures. It includes details on the use of different package managers (pip, conda, mamba) and troubleshooting for configuration issues across different operating systems. 

Consult the official documentation at this link.

 

Getting Started Guide: Project Pythia – Introduction to JupyterLab

This interactive resource offers a solid foundation on the use of JupyterLab, developed specifically for professionals in Earth sciences and hydrometeorology. It is ideal for becoming familiar with navigation in the working environment and the management of code files. 

Access Project Pythia at this link.

 

Technical context: Jupyter Notebook and Python: Integration of key libraries

Published by OpenWebinars, this article explains the architecture of notebooks and how data analysis libraries operate within this ecosystem. Recommended for understanding the interactivity and visualization capabilities that we will use in Barbados. 

Read the article on OpenWebinars at this link.

 

We thank you in advance for your collaboration in this prior preparation. 

We kindly urge you to complete the installation and technical validation before the trip, in order to safeguard the proper development of the practical sessions of the CopernicusLAC Chile Caribbean Regional Workshop.

We are very pleased to count on your participation and look forward to meeting you very soon in Barbados.