{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Spatial Stack with Matt Forrest","title":"Rebuilding Climate Risk: SPHERE, DuckDB, and the Modern GIS Stack with Troy Schmidt","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/8dc9b953\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2470,"description":"In this episode of the Spatial Stack, Matt sits down with Troy Schmidt, a 20-year GIS developer and the creator of SPHERE, an open-source Python package that runs FEMA's HAZUS flood risk methodology on GeoParquet and DuckDB.\nTroy dives into why depth damage functions are simpler than the engineering language suggests, and how the gap between the HAZUS methodology and the HAZUS software pushed him to build a Python-first alternative. He shares the moment he realized the data and the science were already public, and that the only thing missing was a modern stack to run it on.\nThe conversation also covers the three types of flooding most people lump together (coastal, riverine, and pluvial), why pluvial risk is the gap that nobody insures, and what an open core model means for geospatial science.\nFinally, Troy walks through his cloud-native discovery process, from Wherobots and Earthmover webinars to DuckDB and vectorized math, and explains why turning legacy methodology into a Python package unlocks deployment patterns that were never possible before.\n📊 FREE: The Modern GIS Skill Map\nThe 5 skills that actually matter in modern GIS (and what you can stop learning). Based on a survey of 1,400+ geospatial professionals.\n➡ Get the free training + PDF guide: https://forrest.nyc/go/training/\nConnect with Troy Schmidt:\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mr-troy-schmidt/\nSPHERE on GitHub: https://github.com/Niyam-Projects/sphere\nCHAPTERS:\n00:00:00 – Intro\n00:01:35 – Welcome and Troy's 20-Year GIS Journey\n00:04:17 – The Risk Modeling Landscape\n00:07:25 – Coastal, Riverine, and Pluvial Flooding\n00:11:05 – HAZUS Methodology vs. HAZUS Software\n00:16:05 – Site-Specific vs. Census Block Analysis\n00:18:05 – Building SPHERE: A Python Package for Risk\n00:21:25 – Cloud-Native, GeoParquet, and DuckDB\n00:25:05 – Why the Methodology Was Simple All Along\n00:27:05 – Discovery: Webinars, Wherobots, and the Modern Stack\n00:29:35 – Spatial as a Boundary Data Type\n00:32:35 – The Open Core...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/eQgCuZrC7zp58BwqV7sl3SCjjIPfOYXp-k4ce29LXQY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80ZjU3/N2JlMDJiYTFjOWY5/OWQ5NWQxYmZjMjMw/Yzg1ZC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}