State of Environment
The quality of environment in St. Petersburg is determined by the structure and culture of production, specific features of placement of productive forces, the geographical position and climatic conditions.
There is not any other multi-million city in the world, located in latitude 60º North, having such a great number of industrial and social objects. Regretfully, both the industrial and social objects located on the territory of the city are distinguished by high resource-intensiveness and power consumption, which affects the ecological situation negatively. Besides, being located in the mouth of the Neva, the city has to let some of the sewage coming from the other subjects of the Federation, through its main waterway. The ecological situation is influenced as well by the trans-boundary air transfer of polluting substances from adjacent territories.
The quality of environment in the city is determined by extent of pollution of air and water basins, use of urban lands, recycling of production and consumption wastes, by condition of the green plantations and many other factors. The character of pollution and its consequences differs by environmental layers - atmospheric air, surface and underground waters, soils, green plantations.
The pollution of air takes place, as mentioned above, by transfer of pollutants from adjacent territories and through emissions from mobile and stationary sources. In St. Petersburg the major air pollution is accounted for motor transport emissions, therefore the most polluted air is nearly the thoroughfares with intensive traffic.
On the territory of St. Petersburg there are 652 water reservoirs and 396 watercourses. The condition of water objects of the city is characterised as "polluted" and "moderately polluted". The major sources of pollution of surface waters is discharge of untreated waste and storm waters. In 2008 one of major stages of construction of the Main sewage collector in the northern part of the city was completed, started as early as in 1970-ies, which will allow to stop water discharge to the city watercourses without treatment in the nearest years.
Underground waters are widespread on the territory of St. Petersburg and its vicinities. The bowels of the city contain not only fresh potable water, but also mineralised waters that are used as mineral table and medicinal waters and for balneological purposes at the sanatoria of Kurortyny and Petrodvorets areas. The underground waters located in the bowels of the city are quite clean.
The condition of soils is of great importance for assessment of the ecological situation of a particular territory, as soils serve as an integrated indicator of ecological condition of the environment and as a source of secondary pollution of the surface layer of the atmosphere, of surface and subsoil waters. The pollution of soils by inorganic and organic toxicants differs by prevalence and toxicological effect. The soil pollution level is extremely heterogeneous, it is determined both by historical factors connected with development of the city and man-caused effects.
Green plantations have numerous and different functions, of which the main are: regeneration of community air due to absorption of carbon dioxide and emission of oxygen, reduction of level of noise in the city, of dust and gas content, improvement of the microclimate due to fall of air temperature in hot weather because of evaporation of moisture, protection from winds, volatile production by plants - special volatile substances able to kill pathogenic microbes. As of January, 1st, 2009 on the territory of St. Petersburg there are 1925 general-use green plantations, including: 215 parkways (1003.9 hectares), 7 quays (6.4 hectares), 59 parks (3193.8 hectares), 160 gardens (658.9 hectares), 689 squares (1027.7 hectares), 787 planted trees s (1207.2 hectares) and 8 other gardening objects (140.8 hectares).
