[
  {
    "field": "dataset",
    "description": "Great Salt Lake basin streamflow datasets split into main/terminal accounting gages and upper/diagnostic gages; annual, 1961–2025, kaf units."
  },
  {
    "field": "time_basis",
    "description": "Water year (October–September); all annual values are aggregated on a water-year basis (e.g., WY1961 = Oct 1960 through Sep 1961)."
  },
  {
    "field": "units",
    "description": "Thousand acre-feet (kaf)."
  },
  {
    "field": "aggregation_definition",
    "description": "Annual values represent total streamflow at each gage over the water year. Daily mean discharge values are converted to annual water-year volumes."
  },
  {
    "field": "missing_data",
    "description": "Blank/null values indicate no usable USGS record available for that gage/year. Values are not interpolated and should not be treated as zero."
  },
  {
    "field": "record_completeness_rule",
    "description": "When calculating long-term averages, exclude years with missing/null annual values or visibly incomplete annual records. Do not include missing years in the denominator."
  },
  {
    "field": "bear_river_corinne_record_gap",
    "description": "USGS 10126000 Bear River at Corinne has a historical record interruption around 1958–1962, with partial-year records in adjacent years. In the published 1961–2025 annual dataset, Bear River at Corinne is null for WY1961–1963 and complete beginning WY1964."
  },
  {
    "field": "bear_river_corinne_analysis_note",
    "description": "Analyses using Bear River at Corinne should begin in WY1964 for continuous terminal-gage comparisons, or otherwise explicitly exclude missing years. The missing early-1960s values do not affect post-1987 comparisons when averages are calculated only from available complete records."
  },
  {
    "field": "data_source",
    "description": "USGS stream gage records aggregated to annual water-year totals."
  },
  {
    "field": "accounting_hierarchy",
    "description": "The accounting framework is terminal-gage based. Main/terminal gages are used for basin-plan inflow accounting. Upper/diagnostic gages are provided for operational, routing, wetland, and Hydromapper-style analysis and should not be summed into total terminal inflow."
  },
  {
    "field": "main_basin_gages_file",
    "description": "streamflow_main_basin_gages_annual_1961_2025_kaf.csv/json."
  },
  {
    "field": "upper_basin_gages_file",
    "description": "streamflow_upstream_diagnostic_gages_annual_1961_2025_kaf.csv/json."
  },
  {
    "field": "year",
    "description": "Water year."
  },
  {
    "field": "bear_river_corinne_kaf",
    "description": "Bear River at Corinne; main/terminal accounting gage used for Bear River basin-plan inflow accounting. Published annual series is null for WY1961–1963 because the continuous Corinne record begins in WY1964 for this dataset."
  },
  {
    "field": "weber_river_plain_city_kaf",
    "description": "Weber River near Plain City; main/terminal accounting gage used for Weber River basin-plan inflow accounting."
  },
  {
    "field": "jordan_river_surplus_canal_kaf",
    "description": "Surplus Canal flow; main/terminal accounting gage used for Jordan River basin-plan inflow accounting."
  },
  {
    "field": "jordan_river_1700s_kaf",
    "description": "Jordan River at 1700 South; main/terminal accounting gage used for Jordan River basin-plan inflow accounting."
  },
  {
    "field": "terminal_flow_definition",
    "description": "Main/terminal measured gage flow is defined as bear_river_corinne_kaf + weber_river_plain_city_kaf + jordan_river_surplus_canal_kaf + jordan_river_1700s_kaf, using only available non-null annual values and clearly noting any missing component years."
  },
  {
    "field": "terminal_flow_average_guidance",
    "description": "For four-gage terminal-flow averages, use years where all required component gages are present, or state clearly which gages and years are included. Do not fill missing gage values with zero."
  },
  {
    "field": "bear_river_idaho_ut_line_kaf",
    "description": "Bear River at Idaho–Utah state line; upper/diagnostic gage only; do not add to terminal inflow total."
  },
  {
    "field": "weber_river_gateway_kaf",
    "description": "Weber River at Gateway; upper/diagnostic gage only; do not add to terminal inflow total."
  },
  {
    "field": "weber_river_pineview_kaf",
    "description": "Pineview Reservoir releases; operational/diagnostic gage only; do not add to terminal inflow total."
  },
  {
    "field": "farmington_bay_kaf",
    "description": "Farmington Bay inflow gage; diagnostic/managed-wetland and Hydromapper-style analysis gage. Record is incomplete in early years and should not be added to the four-gage terminal inflow total unless the accounting boundary is explicitly changed."
  },
  {
    "field": "goggin_drain_kaf",
    "description": "Goggin Drain / Surplus Canal diagnostic gage depending on source convention; use only according to the relevant dataset column definition and avoid double-counting with Jordan River terminal gages."
  },
  {
    "field": "ai_prompt_guidance",
    "description": "AI tools reconstructing tables should treat nulls as missing, exclude missing/incomplete years from averages, identify included years in any reported mean, and avoid summing upper/diagnostic gages into terminal inflow totals."
  },
  {
    "field": "system_alignment",
    "description": "Streamflow, climate, elevation, lake-balance, and depletion datasets are aligned on a common water-year basis for ledger and validation analyses."
  }
]