City report · Santa Catarina, Brazil
Palhoça Air quality today
Air quality in Palhoça currently reads AQI 39 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
AQI 39
Air quality right now
Good
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 7.1
- tree cover
- 24.5%
- trees in this area
- 69.7K
- more trees needed
- 15.6K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Centro, Palhoça - SC, Brazil (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Oct 20, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Palhoça · AQI 39 (Good)
Palhoça's tree count comes to 69,657 trees across 11.38 km² of land, 5 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 15,637 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Palhoça today: AQI 39, Good
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 07:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Model estimate · no ground station nearby
Health signal
Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
PM2.5
7.1
PM10
10.4
NO₂
4.3
O₃
36.0
SO₂
1.1
CO
147.0
- Outdoor exercise
- A good day to be active outside
- Windows
- Open them to air the house
- Mask
- Not needed
- Air purifier
- Not needed
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Palhoça's daily AQI at 33 on average, from 21 on Nov 7 to an hourly peak of 55 on Nov 8.
Where Palhoça stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Palhoça: Below target
24.5% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 11.38 km² of land.
Trees in this area
69,657
Target trees
85,294
More trees needed
15,637
CO₂ if planted / yr
344.0 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Palhoça lost?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Palhoça has lost about 1,200 hectares of forest (about 1,700 football pitches): 11% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it (85%) was deforestation, forest cleared for good, mainly for towns and roads.
2017: satellite photo from January 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area about 4 km west of the city center.
- Forest lost since 2001
- 1,200 haabout 1,700 football pitches
- Share of its forest
- 11%of what there was in 2000
- Cleared for good
- 1,030 hadeforestation: turned into farms, mines or towns
Forest loss is slowing down: about 35 hectares a year in 2021–2025, down from 64 hectares a year in 2016–2020. The worst year was 2016, when about 181 hectares of forest were lost.
Hectares of forest lost each year
Show the figures as a table
| Year | Cleared for good | Can grow back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 22 ha | 2 ha | 24 ha |
| 2002 | 15 ha | 2 ha | 17 ha |
| 2003 | 44 ha | under 1 ha | 45 ha |
| 2004 | 47 ha | 1 ha | 48 ha |
| 2005 | 63 ha | 6 ha | 69 ha |
| 2006 | 109 ha | 1 ha | 110 ha |
| 2007 | 65 ha | 2 ha | 67 ha |
| 2008 | 47 ha | 2 ha | 49 ha |
| 2009 | 21 ha | 2 ha | 23 ha |
| 2010 | 63 ha | under 1 ha | 64 ha |
| 2011 | 46 ha | under 1 ha | 46 ha |
| 2012 | 18 ha | 3 ha | 21 ha |
| 2013 | 28 ha | under 1 ha | 28 ha |
| 2014 | 66 ha | under 1 ha | 67 ha |
| 2015 | 22 ha | under 1 ha | 22 ha |
| 2016 | 57 ha | 124 ha | 181 ha |
| 2017 | 46 ha | 6 ha | 52 ha |
| 2018 | 18 ha | under 1 ha | 18 ha |
| 2019 | 11 ha | 4 ha | 15 ha |
| 2020 | 52 ha | 4 ha | 56 ha |
| 2021 | 44 ha | 1 ha | 45 ha |
| 2022 | 31 ha | 5 ha | 36 ha |
| 2023 | 40 ha | under 1 ha | 40 ha |
| 2024 | 21 ha | 5 ha | 26 ha |
| 2025 | 28 ha | 3 ha | 30 ha |
What is causing deforestation around Palhoça?
- Towns and roadscleared for good73% · 881 ha
- Farms, pasture and plantationscleared for good12% · 144 ha
- Storms, floods and other natural causescan grow back8.7% · 104 ha
Also: logging, unknown causes.
Causes for 2025 are estimates, based on what caused forest loss in the same places up to 2024.
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 10,300 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 9,910 ha
- Overall change
- −409 haless forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Palhoça shrank from about 10,300 hectares to 9,910 hectares, a net loss of about 409 hectares (−4%). New forest grew on about 373 hectares, but 782 hectares were lost.
These 2000 and 2020 maps, from the University of Maryland, count any land with trees taller than 5 m as forest, including plantations and orchards. Forest that was cut or burned and had grown back by 2020 counts in both years, so the loss here is smaller than the yearly figures.
These figures cover everything within 10 km of the city center, a wider area than the report above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. Forest gained and lost 2000–2020: Potapov et al. 2022, UMD GLAD Global Land Cover and Land Use Change, CC BY 4.0. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
In the same region
Measured cities near Palhoça
Same 2 km radius, same index — so they compare directly.
- Florianópolis12.9 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 29%
- Air quality
- 53
- Brusque65.5 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 47%
- Air quality
- 45
- Balneário Camboriú72.9 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 11%
- Air quality
- 52
- Itajaí82.0 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 15%
- Air quality
- 53
- Blumenau89.8 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 62%
- Air quality
- 38
- Tubarão97.2 km
Brazil
- Tree cover
- 18%
- Air quality
- 34
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Frequently asked
Questions about Palhoça
What is the air quality (AQI) in Palhoça right now?
The latest reading for Palhoça shows an AQI of 39 (Good), observed Nov 11, 07:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Palhoça today?
At AQI 39 (Good): a good day to be active outside. Windows: open them to air the house. Masks: not needed. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Palhoça been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Palhoça's daily AQI at 33 on average, from 21 on Nov 7 to an hourly peak of 55 on Nov 8. No day averaged above 100, the level where the air turns unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Palhoça lost since 2001?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Palhoça has lost about 1,200 hectares of forest (about 1,700 football pitches): 11% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it (85%) was deforestation, forest cleared for good, mainly for towns and roads. Forest loss is slowing down: about 35 hectares a year in 2021–2025, down from 64 hectares a year in 2016–2020. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Palhoça shrank from about 10,300 hectares to 9,910 hectares, a net loss of about 409 hectares (−4%). New forest grew on about 373 hectares, but 782 hectares were lost.
What is the tree count in Palhoça?
Palhoça has an estimated 69,657 trees across the 11.38 km² of land measured — 24.5% tree cover, 5 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Palhoça need?
Palhoça needs roughly 15,637 more trees to close a 5-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 344.0 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Palhoça's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality comes from ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ where one reports nearby, and otherwise, as here, from the Open-Meteo / CAMS model, which may differ from street-level monitors. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 2 km radius around Centro; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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