Climate adaptation for primary schools in Mexico City – lessons learned and best practices

Title : Climate adaptation for primary schools in Mexico City – lessons learned and best practices

Abstract:

Urban schools are increasingly exposed to climate-related hazards, particularly flooding and extreme heat, which directly affect children’s health, learning conditions, and educational continuity. This paper is grounded in an ongoing research project on urban resilience that examines how public primary schools can strengthen their adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. Focusing on Mexico City, the study analyzes school-level responses to recurrent floods and intensifying heatwaves, situating them within broader debates on resilience as a socio-ecological, institutional, and learning-oriented process rather than a purely technical outcome.

The research combines a comparative review of international experiences in school-based climate adaptation - drawing on cases from Europe, Asia, and Latin America - with empirical analysis of the socio-environmental and governance conditions shaping public schools in Mexico City. International lessons related to climate-responsive design, green and blue infrastructure, heat mitigation strategies, risk governance, and community participation are critically assessed in terms of their transferability to highly dense, unequal, and resource-constrained urban contexts.

By linking global best practices with local realities, the paper highlights key tensions between standardized adaptation models and context-specific resilience pathways. It argues that primary schools can function as strategic nodes of urban resilience, not only by reducing physical exposure to climate hazards but also by fostering adaptive learning, risk awareness, and the co-production of knowledge among students, educators, families, and local authorities. The findings contribute to resilience research by emphasizing schools as critical infrastructures for climate adaptation in megacities of the Global South and by offering policy-relevant insights for integrating educational spaces into urban resilience and adaptation strategies.

Biography:

Mary Frances Rodriguez holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Geophysics, as well as a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is a tenured, full-time Professor, with 25 years of experience. She holds the highest level in UNAM’s Performance Incentive Program for Academic Personnel and is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers. She currently is the Director of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. She has authored and co-authored an extensive body of scholarly work on vulnerability, disaster risk, and geography education.