diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 0d1fe63d..40cce675 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ Changes
 `Unreleased <https://github.com/Ouranosinc/Magpie/tree/master>`_ (latest)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+Features / Changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Update ``sqlalchemy>=2``.
+* Security updates to Python and Docker dependencies.
+
 Bug Fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/magpie/alembic/env.py b/magpie/alembic/env.py
index fb4bc903..fbd3e7e4 100644
--- a/magpie/alembic/env.py
+++ b/magpie/alembic/env.py
@@ -78,14 +78,14 @@ def connect(_connection=None):
         if isinstance(_connection, Connection) and not _connection.closed:
             return _connection
         if not isinstance(_connection, Connectable):
-            _connection = create_engine(url, convert_unicode=True, echo=False)
+            _connection = create_engine(url, echo=False)
         return _connection.connect()
 
     if not database_exists(url):
         db_name = get_constant("MAGPIE_POSTGRES_DB")
         LOGGER.warning("Database [%s] not found, attempting creation...", db_name)
         create_database(url, encoding="utf8", template="template0")
-        connection = create_engine(url, convert_unicode=True, echo=False)
+        connection = create_engine(url, echo=False)
 
         # retry connection and run migration
     with connect(connection) as migrate_conn:
diff --git a/magpie/db.py b/magpie/db.py
index 8886f0c3..eb00ce90 100644
--- a/magpie/db.py
+++ b/magpie/db.py
@@ -90,8 +90,6 @@ def get_engine(container=None, prefix="sqlalchemy.", **kwargs):
     settings = get_settings(container or {})
     settings[prefix + "url"] = get_db_url(settings=settings)
     settings.setdefault(prefix + "pool_pre_ping", True)
-    kwargs = kwargs or {}
-    kwargs["convert_unicode"] = True
     return engine_from_config(settings, prefix, **kwargs)
 
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index bc42ef2e..1203c6ff 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -38,10 +38,8 @@ requests_file
 idna>=3.15.0
 simplejson
 six>=1.12.0
-# see also: safety 51668, https://github.com/sqlalchemy/sqlalchemy/pull/8563
-sqlalchemy>=1.4.44,<2  # pyup: ignore
-# see also: safety 42194, https://github.com/kvesteri/sqlalchemy-utils/issues/166, not fixed since 2015
-sqlalchemy-utils==0.42.1  # pyup: ignore
+sqlalchemy>=2.0.52,<3
+sqlalchemy-utils==0.42.1
 threddsclient>=0.4.7
 transaction
 typing_extensions