Study area
Mérida city is the capital of the state of Yucatan, Mexico (city code given by UN 2018: 21851), which was conquered and funded in 1542 (Maya original name T’ho) by the Spaniards. Mérida is located at 20.9667 °N, 89.6167 °W, and at 10 m.a.s.l. with warm sub-humid weather with a rainy season spanning from June to October (Mérida City Council, 2018). The mean annual rainfall is 959 mm, and the mean annual temperature is 26–27.5 °C, with the mean maximum temperature occurring in April–May (37.5–41 °C), and the minimum (16 ◦C) in January–February (Mérida City Council, 2018). Mérida is the largest and most populated tropical city in the Yucatan Peninsula, which, since 1970, has experienced a sustained urban expansion due to flat topography, groundwater availability, and weak enforcement of urban growth regulation. The urban expansion in the 2001-2018 period has promoted the deforestation of 5,413.2 ha (in average of 205 ha/year), driving the emergence of a heat island effect, increasing temperatures in 2.36–3.94 °C after deforestation (Carrillo-Niquete et al., 2020). In 2020, the population of the city reached 921,771 people, representing 92.6% of the total population of the municipality, and 39.7% of the state’s total population (INEGI, 2020). Finally, the growth rate of Mérida city in 2020 was 1.75 (UN), and currently 86% of the population of Yucatan lives in urban areas (INEGI, 2020). Adjacent rural areas are characterized by edges of agricultural fields and roadside ditches.