SMAC expands the Heat Observatory project to communities in Salgueiro and Manguinhos.

Complexo do Alemão received the Heat Observatory, an initiative of SMAC in partnership with the NGO Voz das Comunidades. Photo: Vitória Pinheiro/Voz das Comunidades

After launching the Heat Observatory project in the Complexo do Alemão favela last year, the Municipal Secretariat for the Environment and Climate (SMAC) is taking the project to two more communities in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro: Manguinhos and Salgueiro, in partnership with UFRJ and UERJ, respectively.

The Manguinhos community is located near one of the city's main expressways, Avenida Brasil, and the main campus of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), while the Salgueiro community is located near the buffer zone of the Tijuca National Park.

The initiative utilizes Citizen Data Generation, a research methodology in which residents themselves take the lead in collecting and analyzing information about their territories. To address the climate risk of extreme heat, the project focuses on the technical installation of temperature and humidity sensors.

Thus, SMAC aims to identify and monitor extreme heat islands and air quality parameters in the region, with the central objective of transforming data into effective public policies. The project represents a union of technology, popular participation, and climate justice.

The official announcement of the program's expansion was made this Wednesday morning in the Guarani Hall of the Carlos Gomes Theater, in Tiradentes Square, in downtown Rio.

Secretary of Environment and Climate, Tainá de Paula, highlighted citizen participation in the project and celebrated the expansion of the initiative:

– Extreme heat and air pollution pose serious health risks, especially in vulnerable areas. The Heat Observatory allows us to better understand these impacts locally and act in a targeted way to protect the population, developing essential climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for the region, alongside the residents.

Universities celebrate partnership

Professor Giselle Arteiro Azevedo from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at UFRJ emphasized her expectation of learning from the residents of Manguinhos:

– We reaffirm our commitment as a public university to consider such important emerging issues and climate and environmental justice. Manguinhos is a very densely populated area with few green spaces. Most likely, the measurements will draw attention to this environmental inequality.

Zoy Anastassakis, Director of the Higher School of Industrial Design at UERJ, explained that Salgueiro possesses knowledge of climate solutions that can help other communities and praised SMAC's initiative:

– The Heat Observatory is a great opportunity for us to advance the interface between public administration, territories, and the university. We believe that this is how we will generate public policies anchored in concrete situations.

Community plans discussion of public policies.

Vice-president of Caxambu do Salgueiro, of the Sal-Laje Institute and member of the Salgueiro Herbalists Collective, Marcelo da Paz Rocha stated that the community has much to contribute to the debate on sustainability and spoke about the expectation for the arrival of the Heat Observatory to the Tijuca favela.

– Based on the report that will be produced with these measurements in Morro do Salgueiro, we will be able to discuss public policies and show how we live our reality in the favela.

Data from the Complexo do Alemão

During a presentation at the Carlos Gomes Theater, the NGO Voz das Comunidades presented the results of research conducted in the Complexo do Alemão from September 2025 to January 2026. The research involved 710 technical measurements, all documented with photographs of the equipment, and 740 interviews with residents. The report showed peak temperature dates in the area. On December 26, 2025, the Heat Observatory recorded a temperature of 43,92 ºC in Morro do Adeus, in Alemão. On the same day, according to official data from Alerta Rio, the maximum temperature recorded in the South Zone and the city center was 34 ºC.

According to a survey by the NGO Voz das Comunidades, the data also showed the presence of distinct urban microclimates within the territory, records of extreme temperatures exceeding 40ºC, and direct impacts on the health and well-being of the population.

More information about the Heat Observatory can be found on the website:
https://observatoriodocalor.prefeitura.rio/