diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index d225a2a2..e6d229b4 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ RUN git submodule init
 RUN git submodule update
 
 # Install Node.js + other packages
+RUN add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable && apt-get update
 RUN curl --silent --location https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | bash -
 RUN apt-get install -y nodejs binutils libproj-dev gdal-bin
 
diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
index 68158b31..ed92476b 100755
--- a/start.sh
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -9,17 +9,31 @@ echo "|__/|__/\___/_.___/\____/_____/_/  /_/   "
 echo                          
 echo -e "\e[39m"
 
-python -c "import sys;ret = 1 if sys.version_info <= (3, 0) else 0;print('Checking python version... ' + ('3.x, good!' if ret == 0 else '2.x'));sys.exit(ret);"
-if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then
+almost_there(){
     echo 
     echo "===================="
     echo "You're almost there!"
     echo "===================="
+}
+
+# Check python version
+python -c "import sys;ret = 1 if sys.version_info <= (3, 0) else 0;print('Checking python version... ' + ('3.x, good!' if ret == 0 else '2.x'));sys.exit(ret);"
+if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then
+	almost_there
     echo -e "\e[33mYour system is currently using Python 2.x. You need to install or configure your system to use Python 3.x. Check out http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/ for information on how to setup Python 3.x alongside your Python 2.x install.\e[39m"
     echo
     exit
 fi
 
+# Check GDAL version
+python -c "import sys;import re;import subprocess;version = subprocess.Popen([\"gdalinfo\", \"--version\"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0].decode().rstrip();ret = 0 if re.compile('^GDAL [2-9]\.[1-9]+').match(version) else 1; print('Checking GDAL version... ' + ('{}, excellent!'.format(version) if ret == 0 else version));sys.exit(ret);"
+if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then
+	almost_there
+    echo -e "\e[33mYour system is currently using a version of GDAL that is too old, or GDAL is not installed. You need to install or configure your system to use GDAL 2.1 or higher. If you have installed multiple versions of GDAL, make sure the newer one takes priority in your PATH environment variable.\e[39m"
+    echo
+    exit
+fi
+
 echo Building asssets...
 webpack