Columns to keep

[thiagovmdon]

Hi @kratzert and @simonmoulds. Sorry if there was an issue already, but I could not find. About the columns I have a maybe very pedantic question:

1. Should e rename the original columns to the minimum standardized ones we agreed upon as minimum to have?

        std_cols = [
            "gauge_id",
            "station_name",
            "river",
            "latitude",
            "longitude",
            "altitude",
            "area",
            "country",
            "source",
        ]

2. Or should we just add these as "new columns" and keep the original?

My idea would be to rename, but I was wondering until how far is nice for us to modify these columns, since sometimes they are already described somewhere?

[kratzert]

I have no strong opinion. So far, we rename them and didn't duplicate (i.e. also keep the same values with the original column names). I think our names are pretty standard names and their meaning should be clear but you might be right that external documentation exists and it would make it slightly more annoying for users to figure out which column in the external documentation relates to which column in the metadata we return.

[thiagovmdon]

I think eventually it is a very minor detail (So far I am also renaming it), but perhaps we could consider stating somewhere what was renamed. Perhaps it is too detailed and in the end does not matter... But just to keep somewhere in our minds.