geopandas error "OSError: could not find or load spatialindex_c-64.dll" in PyCharm using OSGeo4W paths

Question

Using https://spatialgalaxy.net/2018/02/13/quick-guide-to-getting-started-with-pyqgis3-on-windows/ I created a .bat file to load the OSGeo4W and QGIS paths into PyCharm. Now I am getting an error importing geopandas with

import geopandas "OSError: could not find or load spatialindex_c-64.dll"

I can find the dll in my OSGeo4W folder and I can import geopandas in QGIS.

Bat File

    @echo off
    SET OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
    call "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%"\bin\o4w_env.bat
    call "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%"\apps\grass\grass78\etc\env.bat
    @echo off
    path %PATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis\bin
    path %PATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\grass\grass78\lib
    path %PATH%;C:\OSGeo4W3\apps\Qt5\bin
    path %PATH%;C:\OSGeo4W3\apps\Python39\Scripts

    set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis\python
    set PYTHONHOME=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\Python39

    set PATH=C:\Program Files\Git\bin;%PATH%

start "PyCharm aware of QGIS" /B "C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\PyCharm Community Edition 2021.1.1\bin\pycharm64.exe"

Answer 1

To get geopandas working in a OSGeo Pycharm environment you need to import qgis processing using...

from qgis import processing

then...

import geopandas

will bring in the geopandas package

EDIT 20220513

import qgis

Will also work.