Public Methodology
Clear Lake Watch combines public environmental datasets into a transparent dashboard prototype. It is designed for situational awareness, source discovery, and research planning, not official public-health direction.
Important Disclaimer
This project is an independent public-data dashboard prototype. It does not issue advisories, replace local or state agency guidance, certify water safety, or determine whether recreation is safe. For health and recreation decisions, use current guidance from Lake County, California Water Boards, Tribal monitoring programs, and other responsible agencies.
Signal Types
Each source answers a different question. The dashboard keeps those source types distinct so users can see what is observed, reported, summarized, or estimated.
Public Reports
FHABS bloom reports are voluntary or agency/partner reports of possible bloom events. They help show locations, dates, and advisory context, but reporting frequency can reflect public attention and program activity as well as environmental conditions.
Observed Hydrology
USGS lake-level and streamflow values are pulled from public water services. These records are useful environmental drivers, and many recent values are provisional and subject to revision.
Lab And Field Results
FHABS results records may include field observations or laboratory analysis. The current public results file appears to lag the report stream, so the dashboard displays both report and result freshness.
Arm Assignment
Records are assigned to Upper, Lower, or Oaks Arm using the site registry first, then text and coordinate heuristics when needed. Locations marked `needs-local-review` should be reviewed before authoritative use.
Shoreline Geometry
The dashboard map uses a cached OpenStreetMap multipolygon for the Clear Lake shoreline. This geographic context is separate from water-quality observations and should not be interpreted as a monitoring source.
Data Pipeline
The current pipeline is intentionally simple and transparent: fetch public source files, normalize records, match sites, generate dashboard files, and render everything statically.
USGS daily values and California FHABS CSV resources are pulled by `scripts/refresh-live-data.ps1`.
Reports, observations, sites, and analytics are written as JSON files under `data/`.
The registry uses source IDs, aliases, and proximity radii before falling back to heuristics.
The public page loads static JSON files and renders maps, charts, cards, and download links.
Known Limitations
Site Registry Review
Several FHABS landmarks are intentionally marked as needing local review. Final arm assignments should be reviewed against local knowledge and authoritative site coordinates.
Report Bias
Public report counts are not the same as bloom severity. More reports may reflect more monitoring or more public attention.
Source Freshness
Different source files update at different cadences. Every display should be interpreted using observation dates and source metadata.
Forecasting Status
Forecasting is a future research feature. Any future model output should be labeled experimental and kept separate from observed data and official advisories.
Future Field Data
Lakeside observations and light-microscope phytoplankton identifications should enter through a reviewed intake workflow. Field or NOAA-associated records should document sample custody, location precision, taxonomic confidence, reviewer status, and permission to publish before they appear as public dashboard data.
Experimental Edge AI
A future stretch goal is to test a conversational edge-monitoring layer on Raspberry Pi or Jetson-class devices using a local or local-first LLM wrapper. This would remain an experimental research layer for local diagnostics and reviewed field workflows, not an official advisory source and not a replacement for the core public-data dashboard pipeline.
Community Context
Clear Lake is environmentally and culturally significant, and this dashboard is not meant to bypass local knowledge, Tribal data governance, or reviewed monitoring relationships. If future field, microscopy, or community-science records are added, they should be handled through explicit permission, reviewer traceability, and a publication decision process that respects the originating program or community.
Source Links