PAAKTO Team

We are an interdisciplinary group of data scientists, urban planners, sociologists, and designers dedicated to visualizing and mitigating thermal inequalities in urban environments.

Through the intersection of geospatial data and community co-design, we work to create cooler, safer, and more equitable cities, actively incorporating a gender perspective and the role of care work in urban planning.

Urban Heat as a Social Conflict: Gender Perspective and Participatory Design in Cancun

The Problem: Thermal inequality and exclusion in urban design In Cancun, current urban design disproportionately penalizes a vital but silenced sector: female caretakers. When thermometers exceed 45°C on the asphalt of “heat islands”, temperature stops being a simple meteorological phenomenon and becomes a deep social conflict. Traditionally, urban planning has ignored this friction. However, 32.7% of households in Cancun are female-headed. These are thousands of women who travel through a hostile environment daily to manage economic support and care for vulnerable populations (children and the elderly). Avoiding talking about this invisible burden is avoiding the real development of the city.