Does the above IZ mean Industrial Zone? Does a industrial zone have to be next to aqueduct or dam?
There are a few common district abbreviations:
HS = Holy Site
TS = Theater Square
EC = Entertainment Complex
WP = Water Park
IZ = Industrial Zone
AQ = Aqueduct
Industrial Zones, like most specialty districts* can be placed basically anywhere. Harbors and Water parks need to be on the water, of course, and the Aerodrome and Spaceport need to be on flat land, but the rest can be on any regular land tile that isn't a natural wonder or mountain. Some unique districts have special requirements; for example, the korean
Seowon and Greek
Acropolis must be built on a hill.
*A specialty district is one that requires population to build. A city unlocks a slot for these at size 1/4/7... every 3 pop. However, districts that have green backgrounds, sometimes called civil engineering projects or "green districts," do not require population and can be placed at any time. These include the Aqueduct, Dam, canal, and neighborhood, and any unique versions of them.
The connection to dams and Aqueducts is related to the adjacency bonus of Industrial Zones. You may have noticed that a Campus gets a bonus for being near mountains, or a commercial hub gets a bonus for being on a river.
If we look at the description for an IZ, it's very busy:
Wow! There's like 5 categories on there. Just breaking it down:
-Quarries, mines, and lumbermills and all improvements that provide production.
-Strategic resources are ones that accumulate in the top bar and are used for units and power plants: iron, horses, niter, coal, oil, aluminum, and uranium.
-Every specialty district that has adjacency has the +1 yield per 2 districts next to it bonus. For Japan, this bonus is doubled to 1 yield per district next to it!
-We see +2
for most of those aforementioned "green districts," Aqueducts, Dams, and canals. The
Bath is a unique district for Rome, which replaces the aqueduct. +2 is the strongest type of bonus available for specialty districts, and production is generally quite valuable. If we read closely, we see that just 1 aqueduct is worth the same amount as 4 mines! This is why people try to place Aqueducts and Dams in their cities in such a way that they can have more than one touching an Industrial Zone. That +2 is for
each of those districts, too - so If you had 2 cities close by in a line with
City-Aqueduct-IZ-Aqueduct-City then that IZ in the middle would get +2 for each aqueduct, plus an extra +1 for being next to two districts, for a total of +5. (+2 +2 +1). That's pretty good - it would be like those aqueducts each gave 2
on their tile. But if you run a Policy Card to improve IZ adjacency, such as
Craftsmen (unlocks at the
Guilds civic) or
Five Year Plan (Unlocks at the
Ideology Civic) that +5 would be doubled to +10! Now it's like those aqueducts are giving +4 each! That's liked a hill with a mine on it. If you end up putting a coal power plant in that industrial zone, it will grant a production yield equal to the adjacency of the district itself. This includes Policy card modifiers, so in our case it would be +10
production just for the building, on top of what the IZ is giving. Now it's like the aqueducts are giving +8 production each! Wow!
Most other districts get adjacency from the terrain/map, like mountains or resources. The IZ, however, has a lot of adjacency opportunities from things you yourself build. This can make a real puzzle out of city planning to get the most out of your IZs, but that is something you can make as simple or complex as you want.
Hope that helps!
(Shameless self-promotion: If you look at the signature of my posts, you will see a link to an IZ guide that covers everything related to using those "green districts" to get big production numbers. It's a bit advanced for a beginner, but it does have pictures!)
