Public consultation and citizen mapping on green spaces and their role in public health: Extreme heat in Mexico City

This policy brief describes a transdisciplinary project in Mexico City that used citizen mapping and public consultation to analyze the relationship between extreme heat, public health, and green spaces. The project highlights a gap between official health statistics and the lived experience of the population, emphasizing the need to integrate green infrastructure into health policies to address socio-spatial inequalities.

• Extreme heat is causing health issues in Mexico City, including dehydration, fatigue, irritability, and dizziness, but these are not adequately captured in official health statistics, and no heatstroke deaths are officially reported.
• Heat waves are primarily concentrated in the eastern part of Mexico City, specifically in the municipalities of Iztapalapa and Benito Juárez, where there has been a sustained increase in days with extreme temperatures.
• There is a significant disparity in green space access between municipalities; Iztapalapa has a much lower index of green spaces per inhabitant compared to Benito Juárez.
• While green spaces are viewed as essential for thermal buffering, their actual use is hindered by distance from residences, lack of maintenance, and insecurity.
• Current coordination between the environmental and health sectors is mostly reactive and lacks preventive integration based on territorial evidence.

APA

Mendoza, L. G. (n.d.). Public consultation and citizen mapping on green spaces and their role in public health: Extreme heat in Mexico City. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CEH_Brief_SG-4_en.pdf

Chicago

Mendoza, Leticia Gómez. Public consultation and citizen mapping on green spaces and their role in public health: Extreme heat in Mexico City. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, n.d. http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CEH_Brief_SG-4_en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mendoza |first1=Leticia Gómez |title=Public consultation and citizen mapping on green spaces and their role in public health: Extreme heat in Mexico City |publisher=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |url=http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CEH_Brief_SG-4_en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mendozandpublic, author = {Mendoza, Leticia Gómez}, title = {{Public consultation and citizen mapping on green spaces and their role in public health: Extreme heat in Mexico City}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, url = {http://iai.int/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CEH_Brief_SG-4_en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }