Goiânia ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Goiás. With a population of 1,536,097, it is the second-largest city in the Central-West Region and the 10th-largest in the country. Its metropolitan area has a population of 2,890,418, making it the 12th-largest in Brazil. With an area of approximately , it has a continuous geography with few hills and lowlands, with flat lands in most of its territory, especially the Meia Ponte River, in addition to Botafogo and Capim Puba streams.
Goiânia has its origins as a planned city, founded on October 24, 1933, by then Governor Pedro Ludovico to serve as the new state capital and administrative center. Before this, the state capital was the town of Goiás.
It is the second most populous city in the Central-West Region, only surpassed by the country's capital Brasília, located about from Goiânia. The city is an important economic hub of the region and is considered a strategic center for such areas as industry, medicine, fashion and agriculture. Goiânia has previously been described as having the largest green area per inhabitant in Brazil and the second-most in the world, after Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. PEREIRA, Alberto. "Arborizada e planejada, Goiânia se destaca por parques e museus" . Folha de S.Paulo. May 8, 2009. BIASETTO, Daniel and AMARO, Mariana. "As Cidades que são Numero" . Veja. July 23, 2008. With rapid population growth and urban expansion, satellite imagery shows the majority of the green area is now at the periphery of its sprawling city limits, and the per-capita green area claim may need to be reviewed.
History The idea of creating a new state capital had been bounced around from early on in the state of Goiás. The first plan came from D. Marcos de Noronha who in 1753 wanted to establish the state capital in the municipality of Pirenópolis; again in 1863 José Vieira Couto de Magalhães put forward a plan to move the capital to the edge of the Araguaia river.
The impetus behind the efforts to move the state capital was the need to locate it in accordance with the economic interests of the state. The first state capital, Vila Boa (today City of Goiás), had been chosen when the economy was based on gold extraction. Later, when cattle-raising and agriculture came to dominate the state's development, the old capital was considered remote.
Legislators kept the idea of change alive for a long time. In 1891, the constitutional delegates officially included the idea of transferring the capital in the constitution, which was ratified in 1898 and again in 1918.
Vaguely remembered until 1930, the idea became a reality during the government of Pedro Ludovico, who was the new governor appointed for the state of GoiásGoiás after the military revolt of 1930. In 1932, a commission was created to choose where the new capital would be built. The choice was the municipality of Campinas. The mayor at the time, Andrelino Rodrigues de Moraes, accepted the plan and donated about 242 acres of his land to build the new state capital. In 1933 the commission decided on the present location and the foundation stone was laid.
The plan was for a city of 50,000 with the shape of a concentric radius — streets in the form of a spoke, with the Praça Cívica as the center, with the seats of the state and municipal government — the Palace of Emeralds and the Palace of Campinas.
In 1937, a decree was signed transferring the state capital from the Cidade de Goiás to Goiânia. The official inauguration occurred in 1942 with the presence of the president of the republic, governors, and ministers.
The name, Goiânia, came about in 1933 after a contest was held by a local newspaper. Readers from all over the state contributed, with some of the most popular names being Petrônia, Americana, Petrolândia, Goianópolis, Goiânia, Bartolomeu Bueno, Campanha, Eldorado, Anhanguera, Liberdade, Goianésia, and Pátria Nova, among others. In 1935 Pedro Ludovico used the name Goiânia for the first time, signing a decree creating the municipality.
Art deco
The first buildings in this planned city, designed by Attilio Correia Lima, were inspired by art deco. The collection of buildings is still representative, with 22 of them listed as National Heritage. Mostly built in the 1940s and 1950s, they have been recognized by the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage. The 22 buildings and monuments are in the original center of Goiânia, as in the pioneering nucleus of Campinas, a town existing before Goiânia. Due to lack of maintenance, several of these buildings are in a state of disrepair.
Radiation incident
On September 13, 1987, a medical radiation source containing radioactive caesium-137 was stolen from an abandoned hospital in the city, causing four deaths and many non-fatal cases of radiation poisoning."The Worst Nuclear Disasters" . Time. The incident was caused by radioactive Caesium salt. The soft bluish glow attracted many curious citizens who would take grains of the salt for themselves and family members in the form of jewelry. Those who had not taken any of the salt but were in close contact with it also helped the spread of radiation sickness that set in within hours to days of exposure. Several city blocks had to be demolished due to the contamination. The International Atomic Energy Agency report noted that city and state officials acted with remarkable speed to prevent further injury to the population. The former owner of the health clinic where the container was taken from was barred from retrieving some equipment from the building by court appointed guards. The owner then ominously warned that the guards would be responsible for what happened with "the Caesium bomb", referring to the radiotherapy machine that would be responsible for the incident.
Geography Climate The city has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen: Aw) with an average temperature of . It has a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around .
The lowest temperature ever recorded was "CPTEC/INPE", Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Plataformas de Coletas de Dados, Dados Históricos Meteorológicos. on July 18, 2000, in the suburbs. "INMET" , Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia. Gráficos Climatológicos. Período: 1931–1960. was the lowest recorded downtown, on July 9, 1938. However, such lows are very rare. Temperatures may fall below every winter, mainly in the suburbs. The highest temperature ever recorded was on October 7, 2020.
Flora and fauna
The "cerrado" landscape is characterized by extensive savanna formations crossed by gallery forests and stream valleys and includes various types of vegetation. Humid fields and "buriti" palm paths are found where the water table is near the surface. Alpine pastures occur at higher altitudes and mesophytic forests on more fertile soils.
More than 1600 species of mammals, birds and reptiles have been identified in the cerrado,"Cerrado's Fauna", Costa et al., 1981) including 180 reptile species, 113 amphibians, 837 birds and 195 mammals (WWF). Among the invertebrates, the most notable are the termites and the leaf-cutter ants ("saúvas"). They are the main herbivores of the cerrado, important to consuming and decomposing of organic matter, as well as constituting an important food source to many other animal species.
Economy
While Goiânia's economy today is based on a variety of industries, the local economy's roots are found in the agricultural industry thriving in and around the city. The supply of agricultural equipment, tools, fertilizer and other products make up a large portion of the economic activity.
Second to agriculture are vehicle sales and service industry. Repairs, sales and reconditioning of vehicles are widespread and visible in all areas of the city.
The third largest contributor to the economy is the government sector. As Goiânia is the state capital of Goiás, it is home to many federal and state government agencies that provide a large number of jobs.
In recent years, modern telecommunications, with its supporting industry, has begun to expand into Goiânia. Many large Brazilian companies have established offices in the city.
In addition, due to Goiânia being the state capital, it is home to countless private medical centers/clinics of all kinds.
In 2005, the GDP of the city was R$13,354,065.00.
In the same year, the per capita income for the city was R$11,119.
Demographics
The population of the municipality in 2011, according to the IBGE, was 1,302,001 inhabitants, being the most populous municipality in the state and 12th in Brazil. The main reason for the large population in the vicinity of Goiânia and Brasília — that spurred the growth of the city and the region between it and the federal capital — making the axis Brasília-Goiânia's third largest agglomeration in the country, bringing together about nine million people. The metropolitan area of Goiânia is the tenth largest agglomeration urban Brazil, with a population of 2,173,141, presents a population density of 782.5 inhabitants per , the largest of its state.
The Human Development Index Municipal (HDI) of Goiânia is considered high by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), at 0.832, the second largest of any state of Goiás (in 242 municipalities); third of all Midwest Region of Brazil (in 446) and 111 from all over Brazil (in 5507). Considering only the education, the index value is 0.933 (classified as very high), while Brazil's is 0.849. The longevity index is 0.751 (0.638 is Brazilian) and income is 0.813 (that of Brazil is 0.723). The city has most of the indicators high and similar to the national average according to UNDP. The literacy rate is 96.78% of adults. The incidence of poverty, measured by the IBGE, is 3.64%; the lower the incidence of poverty is 2.92%; the top is 4.35%; and subjective poverty incidence is 4.35%.
Social inequality
Among Brazil's metropolises, Goiânia has the lowest number of "favelas" (Portuguese for slums) according to data extracted from the 2010 census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the IBGE. The IBGE named seven areas in Goiânia as being "subnormal agglomerations", a government term for irregular housing. In these locales, however, most of the households do have electricity, water, and trash collection.
While perhaps not fitting the criteria of favelas, Goiânia has several sectors, particularly on the outskirts, that are low income.
Ethnicity and immigration Goiânia is a multiracial city as the result of intense migration. The populace has intimate connection with the settlement of the interior of the Brazilian center-west, gradually attracted mainly by migrants from the interior of Goiás and other regions in other states of Brazil. According to a survey in 2010, most migrants are from Minas Gerais, Bahia, Tocantins, Maranhão, São Paulo and Pará. According to the census of the IBGE 2022, in search of self-declaration, the population of Goiânia is composed of Multiracial (48.0%), White (43.6%), Black (7.9%), Asian (0.3%) and Amerindian (0.1%).
Initially, Goiânia was populated by migrants from the interior of Goiás. Its creation was crucial to the population growth in the state, since Vila Boa, the ancient capital showed signs of declining population, is considered a setback for the state. The founding of Goiânia is now considered a successful settlement of the Brazilian interior. Today, the population coming from Goiânia is predominantly Minas Gerais, Bahia, Tocantins, Maranhão, São Paulo and Pará, respectively.
Religion