Riverscape Project Collections

[joewheaton]

The Problem

This problem has been discussed in the context of "project references" but is best summed up nicely in this logical question from Steve Bennett:

Hey Joe - loading up new GUT, Rave etc ... is there a reason why we can't have all the topography in a single project for each site just like GUT? Would make file management a bit easier and toggling between years. Just curious (you might have already told me about this

We have kept riverscape projects at "manageable" sizes (and I think are leaning towards doing more of this) mainly governed by download size (i.e. < 1.5 GB). I like the idea of projects being smaller unit chunks and they themselves repeat.

However the idea of a Project Collection might be worth exploring:

Examples Include

• All CHaMP Topo visits to a site in one "Collection" (leave the original topo projects alone), just collect them here.
• All GUT visits (i.e. with one topo... can have different realizations within representing different parametrizations or editing) packaged in one for a site (what we're currently doing)
• A Riverscapes Context, VBET, BRAT and RCAT project for a specific watershed.
• etc.

I think this is a different idea than a project reference. I think in a project reference, you bring across the one (or more) key layers that project needs as a depenency (e.g. A DEM) and typically as an input, and just mention that it came from this project if they want to dig deeper. This, by contrast, is just the original projects, and then a Collector project, that just opens up their own project business logic in Nodes underneath that collection. It is not a copy. It is the original project. Just a way of orgnizing them.

[joewheaton]

@MattReimer thought you'd get a kick out of this. I think your Warehouse 2.0 captures this nicely: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16njoqtsvAMyHkl2APtyYI2kLydoqbEpV9n9PF03i2is/edit#heading=h.d2luccrd3eev

[MattReimer]

I'm not sure this is exactly the same use-case as dynamic collections but I think using that with project references we might be able to satisfy the need here. Let's talk this over some time in person and then circle back to the discussion.