Apply term ownership to NLDI, NGWMN, and WQP prose

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
68/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start with ADR 0013 and the official NLDI, NGWMN, and WQP documentation linked in the issue. Search adapter prose, test comments, and the shared glossary for the affected terms, then run the offline adapter tests, lint, and architecture checks. Done means terminology changes match each service while public names, parameters, URLs, return shapes, and runtime behavior remain unchanged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

ready-for-agent

Parent

#406

Ownership rule

ADR 0013 separates package-owned core vocabulary from service-owned domain vocabulary:

  • getter is a dataretrieval core term. It applies only to public functions returning (DataFrame, metadata) and binds package prose and tests.
  • collection is a domain concept. Adapter prose should accurately translate the service's own vocabulary, while public parameters and wire spellings remain native to that service.

Primary sources settle the three adapters differently:

  • NLDI's official documentation calls its operations navigation functions. The Python adapter returns GeoDataFrames or JSON directly, without a metadata tuple, so calling these functions getters is a package vocabulary defect.
  • NGWMN's live OGC collections document publishes sites, providers, waterLevelObs, and the other record sets as collections. Prose calling those collection identifiers services is upstream-inaccurate; NGWMN itself remains the service.
  • WQP's official Web Services Guide calls these endpoints the Station Web Service, Result Service, and profile services. dataProfile is a separate request parameter. WQP's public service vocabulary is therefore native domain language and must not be normalized away.

What to build

Apply those ownership decisions consistently without changing public behavior:

  1. Describe NLDI's direct-return operations as navigation functions rather than getters, including package and test prose.
  2. Describe NGWMN OGC collection identifiers as collections in prose and comments, while continuing to call the external NGWMN system a service.
  3. Correct the shared glossary so it distinguishes WQP's Result/Station/Activity services from the separate dataProfile values.
  4. Preserve WQP's public service parameters, URL-builder documentation, exported names, wire paths, and other service-oriented public prose.

Acceptance criteria

  • NLDI prose and test comments no longer call direct GeoDataFrame or dictionary-returning functions getters.
  • NLDI is described as navigation functions, matching both its return contract and official API documentation.
  • NGWMN prose and comments use collection for identifiers exposed by its OGC /collections document.
  • References to the external NGWMN system continue to use service.
  • The glossary accurately records that WQP exposes Result, Station, and Activity services and treats dataProfile as a separate concept.
  • WQP's public service terminology and service-oriented URL-builder documentation remain unchanged.
  • Deprecated NWIS vocabulary, Samples resource/code-service terms, the deprecated CQL keyword, and permanent aliases remain unchanged.
  • No public name, signature, return shape, exported value, wire parameter, URL, or runtime behavior changes.
  • Documentation, offline adapter tests, lint, and architecture checks pass.

Blocked by

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Forks
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Merged PRs (30d)
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