SplashPadHub publishes editorial methodology for splash pad data verification

The three-pass verification standard requires that each listing be confirmed against a primary municipal source (city parks page, county recreation calendar, or parks-department release), cross-referenced against at least one independent observation (parent-submitted report, local news coverage, or field photo), and finally re-checked within the most recent operating season before being marked verified. Conflicts between sources are resolved in favor of the primary municipal source, with the conflict logged in the listing's audit trail.

The accessibility verification criteria break ADA-related claims into four evaluable dimensions — approach, surface, restrooms, and features — and require evidence for each dimension before a listing is flagged as accessible. Listings with partial evidence are marked as "partially verified" rather than collapsing to a single binary, a convention drawn from civic-tech transparency norms.

"Methodology is the load-bearing wall of any directory that claims to be authoritative," the editorial team said. "Publishing it openly lets the public hold us to the standard we hold ourselves to, and gives parks departments a benchmark they can adopt or critique."

The methodology page is licensed CC BY 4.0 and is free for parks departments, journalists, and academic researchers to quote, adapt, or cite with attribution.