A settlement is a place where people live and work and carry out activities such as going to work

8/7/2019 A settlement is a place where people live and work and carry out activities such as going to work

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Delwyn Cheng Ze Kai

Chapter 3: Settlements

A settlement is a place where people live and work and carry out activities such

as going to work, school, shop, relax and move around. Settlements need to

provide facilities to help satisfy people·s needs and wants. Settlements are

classified under two different categories. They are Rural and Urban

Settlements. A rural settlement is one where majority of its inhabitants are

involved in farming, fishing, forestry, mining activities or most outdoor activities.

It can vary from a single farmhouse to a series of buildings close to each other.

However, An Urban Settlement is different. The majority of An Urban

Settlement are involved in non-rural activities, also known as activities that are

not really related to outdoors. Such activities are working in offices, shops and

factories, operate machinery, or provide health care and other similar services.

Urban settlements can vary in size, from as small as consisting of 1000 people or

as Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan which consists of over 30 million people. In the

past, most of The Earth·s people lived in Rural settlements. However, as time

passed, We changed our environment. Countries such as Singapore, Japan, the

United States of America, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, more

than three quarters of the population live in urban towns and cities. However,

Other countries like China, Egypt and Nigeria, most of them live in Rural

Settlements. Here are some of the characteristics between An Urban

Settlement and A Rural Settlement.

Rural Settlement

1) They are linked to the area around them.

2) Farmers usually live in a village and travel out to work their land

3) Farmers and their families use the settlements for their basic shopping

needs, banking, schooling and medical services as well as the opportunity

to socialise with other people.

4) They provide a limited range of services to cater to the daily needs of

the people.

5) (In Wealthier Rural Towns) There will be a wider range of services suchas shops, banks, postal services, a religious centre and possibly some

health care and educational services.

6) (In Poorer Rural Towns, these services may be even more limited, with

possibly only a religious centre and a shop or two selling pots and

groceries.



7) They are usually create close knit communities. Many people may know

each other and are able to support one another when the need arises.

Urban Settlements

1) The population and the area they cover and often large

2) They are usually larger than most rural settlements.

3) There is a high concentration of people within the urban area, often

creating traffic problems as many people move around for work and

recreation.

4) They are the centre for economic, social and political activities in a

region.

5) Important buildings such as government offices, the headquarters for

companies, and key cultural sites such as museums, concert halls andsport stadiums are found near the centre of urban settlements.

6) They offer a wider range of goods and services to their inhabitants than

rural settlements.

7) There are departmental stores, supermarkets, and specialist stores

together with a range of health care, legal, administrative and

educational services.

8) People in larger urban settlements are often strangers to one another.

Even though people living in urban neighbourhoods may feel a sense of

community, but usually have little contact with people in other parts ofthe urban settlements.

There are three different types of settlement patterns. The first one is

called Dispersed. The second one is called Linear and the last one is

nucleated. A dispersed settlement is when there are a number of buildings

apart from one another and scattered across the area. A linear settlement is

when buildings are arranged in a line. Usually, the reasons for linear

settlements are rivers. A nucleated settlement is formed in which buildings

are grouped close to one another, usually around a central point, which may

be a town square, religious centre, road junction or a mine. The original

reasons for the siting of the settlement such as water, a mine or a defence

site.



The study of settlements is important as it is able to tell us many things. A few

examples are telling us the different human being populations in different

countries. Apart from that, it is essential to urban planning and urban redesign.

Regional planning commissions which make use of settlement geography theories

and data are able to balance growth in a region so that it does not outstrip the

ability of the local government to provide needed services.

Settlement geography can also be misused. Too strict an application of

settlement geography theories and principles could stifle innovation and

commercial growth in areas of high population and low employment. Forcing

people to live in marginal areas in an effort to control growth could trigger a

migration to other less regulated areas with even more vulnerable ecologies. It

can also be used to ensure the status quo to the extent that upward mobility

ceases to exist, leading to civil unrest.

Special thanks to Websites and Resources:

What Is Settlement Geography? | eHow.com

http://www.ehow.com/about_4623934_what -settlement-

geography.html#ixzz15RxhMOn8

Geography: The Blue marble 2 Textbook

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A settlement is a place where people live and work and carry out activities such as going to work