RMP.3:5.2 - ResidentStream-S17: a missing comparison is not a scheduling detail

Residents have a compatible brief and a selected spatial-temporal comparison of salinity-related observations. The measurement and site owners supply a valid method, the calibration and uncertainty basis, permissible access and a feasible plan for informative hydrological conditions.

The operational specification identifies the reach and sampling point, the condition triggering the observation, the time relation between reaches, the qualified measurement result to obtain, and the weather, access and calibration records needed to interpret the comparison. A laboratory may supply the measurement result; residents need not recreate its internal Method.

If the reference reach becomes inaccessible during the informative thaw event while downstream observations remain possible, the original paired comparison has lost a required observation. Record the site, period and access failure, preserve the downstream material, and return to RMP.2. A later dry-weather reference is a different comparison premise, not routine completion of the old schedule. A narrower use can proceed only under the question/design that justifies it.