index.qmd

---
title: "Welcome to the HRL documentation hub"
pagetitle: "Welcome"
---

The [Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program](https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Voluntary-Agreements-Page) (HRL) is an eight-year interagency effort to restore aquatic habitat, provide environmental flows, and adaptively manage ecosystems in the Sacramento River watershed and the Bay-Delta estuary. HRL aims to improve ecological conditions for native fish populations and is proposed as part of the program of implementation for the State Water Resources Control Board’s [Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan](https://waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/comp_review.html).

HRL implementation and adaptive management are guided by a comprehensive [Science Program](https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Voluntary-Agreements-Page/Science) that investigates how coordinated restoration and environmental flows influence ecological processes and native aquatic species from Sacramento tributary systems to the Bay-Delta estuary. The program is governed by a [Science Committee](https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Support-Healthy-Rivers-and-Landscape/VASciProgramDraftCharter.pdf) composed of representatives from HRL signatory entities and technical experts.

**This website serves as the central hub for documentation, standards, and learning materials that support the data engineering and data science components of the HRL Science Program.**

## Purpose of this site

This documentation website provides:

-   **Data governance and data management standards**
-   **Core program-wide commitments** related to reproducible science, FAIR and CARE principles, metadata, and versioning
-   **High-level, conceptual workflows** for data publication, ingestion, storage, and synthesis
-   **Guidance and onboarding materials** for data producers, analysts, and synthesis teams
-   **Links to templates, examples, tools, and other HRL resources** for synthesis science, communication, and adaptive management

This site focuses on high-level program governance, structures, and workflows. Technical implementations, reproducible templates, and workflow code live in companion HRL GitHub repositories and other documentation sites and are linked throughout this documentation hub.

## Getting started

If you are new to the HRL Science Program, particularly the data engineering and data science enterprise, start with:

-   [HRL Program Overview](about/overview.qmd) – HRL Program overview, governance structure, and roles
-   [Program Commitments](principles/charter.qmd) – HRL program commitments to open, ethical, and reproducible science
-   [Data Governance](lifecycle/overview.qmd) – How HRL entities move data and analyses through HRL’s data lifecycle to produce open scientific insights
-   [Quickstarts](quickstart/quickstart-catalog.qmd) – Step-by-step guides to common tasks (e.g., publishing static datasets and metadata on EDI, getting help with HRL data science)

As HRL evolves, keystone science documents, such as the [HRL Science Plan](https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Voluntary-Watershed-Agreements/Draft_VA_Science_Plan.pdf), will also be made available as interactive web documents.

## Learn more

Use the navigation sidebar to explore documentation on this site.

For information about HRL more broadly, visit:

-   [HRL Program website](https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Voluntary-Agreements-Page)
-   [HRL Science website](https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Voluntary-Agreements-Page/Science)

For questions or suggestions regarding this documentation, please contact Lucy Andrews at [lucy.andrews\@water.ca.gov](mailto:lucy.andrews@water.ca.gov).