High-rise buildings block the sea breeze and make Santos the main city on the São Paulo coast for heat islands. The phenomenon refers to areas where temperatures are higher due to changes in the natural landscape due to urbanization.
The data comes from UrbVerde, a digital socio-environmental monitoring platform powered by researchers from USP (University of São Paulo) and partners. She points out that the municipality has the worst heat island index on the São Paulo coast: a coefficient of 83.3 on a scale that goes up to 100.
On the coast, second place is neighboring São Vicente (coefficient of 79.7). The São Paulo list is at the top of the list with the capital São Paulo, with a coefficient of 100. To calculate these figures, the platform multiplies the so-called vulnerable population (elderly people and children) by the thermal intensity factor (difference in temperature between one sector of the municipality and another).
According to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Santos is also the most verticalized city in the country.
“Santos has grown. It’s a building that covers another. There is a lack of wind and a lack of greenery,” explains Heliete Botelho da Silveira, a 75-year-old retiree and resident of the town. “More greenery would alleviate the problem,” recognizes nursing technician Odair Benjamin, 54, who emphasizes: “It’s palliative. A definitive solution is no longer possible.”
Luiz Yamashiro, 80, retired, lives between Araraquara, in the central region of the state, and Santos, with houses in both towns. “I’m hotter in Santos. And you get tired quicker.”
The town hall claims to be doing its part, and it is precisely to combat this problem that it decided last year to bring together the departments of Urban Development and the Environment. “We cannot accept a developed city without respect for nature,” says portfolio holder Glaucus Farinello, 44.
Another initiative was the launch, in March 2025, of the “Sustainable Santos” program – one of the objectives of which is to plant 10,000 trees by 2028. Thus, the city would reach 45,000 trees in the island area (where more than 95% of the population lives).
The secretary affirms that the municipality is carrying out a sort of “green acupuncture”: replacing the asphalt with nature (flower beds, vegetable gardens and orchards) on sections that the town hall itself maps.
An example is an urban forest, started in the second half of the year, with the removal of asphalt from a parking lot to plant 194 tree seedlings native to the Atlantic forest, such as pitangueiras.
In July he also created the Parque dos Morros, which is the largest space of its kind in the city, with 290,000 square meters, intended to preserve biodiversity, protect wildlife and ensure environmental regeneration.
The arrival of these “green lungs” as a mitigation measure also involves planting on sidewalks and squares to expand the permeable area of the region served and facilitate the infiltration of rainwater into the soil.
In total, according to the IBGE, 67.1% of housing in Santos is apartments. In second place comes Balneário Camboriú (SC) with 63.3% and, in third, São Caetano do Sul (SP) with 52.5%. Between one census and another (2010 and 2022), Santos experienced a 23.2% growth in the number of apartments, from 91,228 to 112,401.
For those walking around the Ponta da Praia district, just look up: three large residential buildings are being built near the sand strip. In the neighborhoods of Aparecida, Embaré and Boqueirão, low-rise houses and structures are also giving way to new buildings.
Think about the collective
“Verticalization is a central issue,” analyzes urban planner and UrbVerde researcher Marcel Fantin, 46 years old. “It disrupts the movement of winds and creates blockages to adequate circulation, in addition to disrupting all green urban infrastructure.”
He notes that heat islands not only increase physical fatigue but also reduce the body’s capacity for thermal regulation, paving the way for diseases linked to the heart’s increased workload.
A professor at the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning at USP de São Carlos, Fantin shows what houses on the São Paulo coast looked like in the 1940s and 1950s. “Low walls, green courtyard in front, fruit trees in the back, tree on the sidewalk. Everything has changed.”
Intense port activity, with goods and trucks moving daily through the port of Santos, the largest in Latin America, also contributes to this scenario.
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