How to Reduce Air and Ground Pollution
If you’re not careful, pollution can be one of the biggest downfalls to any city, as poor placement of services that output pollution can cause significant effects on citizen health, whether through air, water, or ground pollutants, as well as reducing yield from specialized industries.
To help keep your city clean of as many pollutants as possible, this handy guide will detail everything you need to know about reducing air and ground pollution in Cities: Skylines 2.
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How to Reduce Air Pollution
Air pollution is a product of industry, traffic, garbage management, and specific power plants. Poor management and placement of these facilities will cause citizens' happiness and health to decrease, eventually seeing them dying from the consequences of poor air quality.
Now, when it comes to reducing air pollution, one of the most critical factors you need to consider is the wind, as the direction in which the wind is blowing, is the direction in which pollution will spread across your city.
Unlike ground pollution, air pollution will disappear quickly after removing the source, and the speed at which this happens is also affected by wind speed and if rainy weather occurs.
Additionally, you can use renewable energy sources such as Recycling Centers, Wind Turbines, Solar Power Plants, and Nuclear Power Plants, as they all offer minimal air pollution. However, these facilities are often very costly and have hefty monthly upkeep fees that can quickly push your budget into the negatives.
So, while renewable energy is the best option in the long run, it's important to keep these factors in mind and only implement them once your budget allows.
You will also find that switching to electric buses and implementing district policies such as combustion engine bans, heavy traffic bans, and speed bumps will reduce air and noise pollution.
How to Reduce and Remove Ground Pollution
Ground pollutants are generated mostly by industry, power plants, and garbage management facilities. These pollutants are arguably the most difficult to deal with in Cities: Skylines 2 due to their lasting effect on your city's land.
If not planned and placed carefully, services and facilities outputting ground pollutants can not only lead to contaminated groundwater and industry resources, such as forests and fertile land, but they can also affect your citizens' health and happiness.
That said, ground pollution can't really be prevented, especially when first starting your city. But, you can do a few things to minimize the effect that ground pollution can have on your city, such as opting for cleaner and renewable energy services and facilities.
While these services are often costly, such examples are Nuclear Power Plants, Wind Turbines, Solar Power Plants, and Wastewater Treatment Plants.
If you wish to take things to the extreme, you can even forgo industrial zones altogether. While demand will always be present for the zone type, you can get away with avoiding industrial zones, but it comes at the cost of having to import all material and immaterial goods.
Removing Ground Pollution
Unfortunately, there is no quick solution to removing ground pollution in Cities: Skylines 2. The only way ground pollution can be removed is through time, as once the source of the pollution has been removed, it can take a long time for the pollution to disappear entirely.
It is worth noting that once the pollution is gone, using formerly affected groundwater and resources is safe, and you won't run into any issues with your citizens' well-being.
Here are some crucial tips you should consider when it comes to minimizing the effects of ground pollution:
- Sewage should always be placed downstream, preferably as close to your border as possible.
- Water Pumping stations should always be placed upstream, far away from any pollutants -- such as sewage -- entering your water system.
- Investing in sewage upgrades when the opportunity presents itself is essential – you’ll thank yourself as you expand your city, especially when unlocking those downstream tiles.
- Natural resource deposits are always found in the exact locations on every map. So, if you want the advantage of knowing where these locations are so you don’t accidentally contaminate them with the likes of a Landfill or Coal Power Plant, you can load up the map with All Unlocks selected, gaining instant access to the Natural Resources Info View, which is typically locked behind Milestone 3: Large Village.
- As citizens become more educated, they’ll learn better waste management and generate less garbage.
- While a Small Coal Power Plant or purchasing electricity from outside sources will be the most cost-effective method of producing electricity when starting, we highly recommend switching to renewable energy, such as Wind Turbines, as soon as possible if your city has wind speeds to power them efficiently. Both your land and your citizens will thank you for the switch.