Update Policy
Purpose
This policy describes how WaterBalanceTools manages updates to its content, datasets, formulas, and calculators.
Scope
This policy applies to all content updates, including dataset record changes, formula revisions, calculator logic changes, and textual content updates.
Version-Based Updates
Every dataset, formula, and calculator is versioned. Version numbers follow the YYYY.MM format for major versions. Minor revisions are tracked as YYYY.MM.revision_count. Version numbers are stored in data/trust/versions.json and displayed in trust panels and dataset documentation.
Update Triggers
Updates are triggered by: (1) annual review schedule, (2) new authoritative standards or guidelines, (3) accepted user corrections, (4) architecture changes requiring content updates, or (5) new data becoming available that improves confidence level.
Update Propagation
All updates are made to the canonical source (dataset JSON, content JSON, or formula JSON). The build pipeline propagates changes automatically to all affected HTML pages. Manual updates to generated HTML are not permitted and will be overwritten on the next build.
Backward Compatibility
Dataset record IDs are stable and are not changed once assigned. Formula IDs are stable. If a formula is fundamentally revised, a new formula ID is created rather than changing the existing one. Legacy formula versions are retained in revision history.
Relationship to Calculators
Calculator pages always reflect the current version of the formulas and datasets they depend on. When a user accesses a calculator, the trust panel shows the current versions. Historical version details are available in the revision history.
Review Frequency
Update policy reviewed annually.