diff --git a/environment-doc.yml b/environment-doc.yml
index ded227c..baf5d7d 100644
--- a/environment-doc.yml
+++ b/environment-doc.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ channels:
   - conda-forge
   - defaults
 dependencies:
+  - python>=3.8
   - progressbar2
   - pathos>=0.2
   - numpy
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 6be6578..f10264a 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ channels:
   - conda-forge
   - defaults
 dependencies:
+  - python>=3.8
   - progressbar2
   - pathos>=0.2
   - numpy
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 67e01de..15ffdd9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ requires = ["setuptools>=45", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2", "wheel"]
 [project]
 name = "spatialist"
 description = "a Python module for spatial data handling"
-requires-python = ">=3.5"
+requires-python = ">=3.8"
 license = { file = "LICENSE.txt" }
 maintainers = [
     { name = "John Truckenbrodt", email = "john.truckenbrodt@dlr.de" }
diff --git a/spatialist/__init__.py b/spatialist/__init__.py
index a23c8a7..67d2cdb 100644
--- a/spatialist/__init__.py
+++ b/spatialist/__init__.py
@@ -10,9 +10,5 @@
 from .raster import Raster, stack, rasterize
 from .sqlite_util import sqlite_setup, sqlite3
 
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution, DistributionNotFound
-try:
-    __version__ = get_distribution(__name__).version
-except DistributionNotFound:
-    # package is not installed
-    pass
+import importlib.metadata
+__version__ = importlib.metadata.version(__name__)