AEB 2007

A revision guide for GCSE Geography

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Settlement – the place where people live

Settlement is closely linked with population. Often exam questions will

combine elements of the two together.

During this section you will see where people live

How the size and shape of a settlement can vary

How the site is chosen to build a settlement

And how they can be classified in terms of size or function

We will also look at how settlements

may change with time.

How to use this Settlement Revision Lesson

• Click on the topic of your choice on the following slide

• Read through the animated section to the end

• Then choose either to return to the main menu and choose another topic, or exit and try a quiz.

• Finally look at the example GCSE questions on Settlement and have a go at being an examiner!

Growth and decline of cities

Settlement site and situation

Settlement Hierarchy and Function

Settlement Land Use

Click on the settlement topic of your choice

Settlement Site and Situation

• Key words and definitions

Settlement site – The place a settlement is located

Settlement situation – The settlements location in relation to its surroundings

Rural – Countryside

Urban – Built up area

The location of settlements involves the study of both site and situation of different settlement types.

There are two types of settlement:-

Rural (e.g. a village)

And Urban (e.g a town or city).

Rural settlements tend to be smaller in size with a smaller population.

Urban settlements tend to have higher population densities.

Historically settlement locations were chosen because they offered either good access to raw materials or were easy to

defend.Let us look at some of these typical settlement sites.

There were those that were easier to defend:

A dry point site

(higher land in a marshy area)

Inside a river meander

(could act like a natural moat)

A hilltop site

(gave a good viewpoint to spot possible attackers)

Then there were those sites that were positioned to take advantage of passing trade….

A crossroads site

A ford or bridging point

A gap site.

(This site might have also been chosen so that the hills could provide shelter).

Another example of a settlement site is the spring line settlement.

In limestone areas settlements were often located on the spring line so they had easy access to a water supply.

Other settlements have grown up around local supplies of raw materials such as coal or iron ore.

Today settlements in this country are not governed by these factors but new settlements especially in LEDCs can still be found to follow some of these patterns.

Original site factors can be grouped as follows

• To be near a water supply• To be safe from areas that flood• To be a good place to defend• To be near materials they could use for building,

food, or to make things• To have good access to other places• To have shelter from bad weather• To have a supply of fuel for cooking and warmth.

An ideal site would have all these things, but very few do, so a compromise would have to be made.

Dry and safe from flooding

Good site for wood for fuel, weapons and building

Wet sites – water

River / Spring

Good defensive site – good views and hard to attack

Stone and trees for building

Bridging point

Warmer south facing aspect

Good soil for farming

Crossroads – meeting point

Good drier soils Good grass for animals

The following table looks at factors that influence the location of settlements

Water supply Streams, rivers, springs- used for washing drinking cleaning and cooking

London

Defence Easy to defend or giving a good view Edinburgh

Route ways Where 2 rivers valleys or road meet Oxford

Distance From other settlements. Commuter towns Bedford

Resources Nearby supplies of coal iron salt etc. Wigan

Relief Good shelter. Reduced risk of flooding. Aspect (south facing)

Ely

Ports Fishing grounds, sheltered inlets Portsmouth

Market centres Servicing the surrounding area Dartford

Resorts Holiday destinations Blackpool

Educational centres University towns Cambridge

Religious centres Cathedral cities Canterbury

Railway towns Major railways junctions Crewe

Planned towns New or expanded towns Harlow

Manufacturing centres Centres of industry Coventry

Main factor Description UK example

These may be social, historic, economic or political

• Although these site factors are less important today you can often still find evidence of what they might have been.

• A common type of GCSE question on this topic is to use an OS map to look for likely features that may have lead to the development of a settlement at a certain site. – The next page gives you some possible points you could look for…

Bridging Point

(valley narrows here)

Good water supply from river Eden

Not built on flood plain (above 10m contour)

Good defensive site – on mound with rivers on 2 sides

Meeting place of several routes

Valley sides to give shelter from weather

Sketch map to show how the site of Carlisle related to both physical and human features in the area.

Settlement patterns over an areaSettlement patterns are usually classified as either

Dispersed Nucleated

Or, linear

Buildings spread out – common in sparsely populated areas such as pastoral farming regions.

Here the buildings are clustered together around a central point.

The buildings are arranged in a line. Often following the line of a road or river along a valley.

When describing a settlement you need to remember these key points..

• A settlement can be permanent or temporary• The site of the settlement would have been

chosen by the settlers who would have been looking for one or more important features

• The piece of land the settlement is built on is the settlement site

• The situation of a settlement is its position in relation to the human and physical features around it.

• Try to refer to the relief of the land, the vegetation and any important physical features eg. a river as these may give you clues as to what the original site factors might have been.

That completes this section on Settlement site and situation

Click this box to return to the main menu to choose another topic

Click here to exit the program. Then why not have a look at the sample GCSE questions on Settlement.

Click here to try a short test on what you have just learnt

Settlement Hierarchy and Function

Here are some useful definitions

• Sphere of influence – The region that a settlement can attract people from

• Function – The type of services offered by a settlement

• High order – Expensive and less frequently used goods and services

• Low order – Less expensive but more frequently used goods and services

• Threshold population – The number of people needed to support a particular function

Settlements can be ranked in order of their size and number. This is called a settlement

hierarchy.

City

Town

Village

Hamlet

These different settlements will differ in terms of size population and function.

• Capital city

• Major city

• City

• Town

• Village

• Hamlet

Listing these in order of size:

These settlements increase in size, population, range of functions and sphere of influence

However they will decrease in number

• Capital city

• Major city

• City

• Town

• Village

• Hamlet

There are fewer cities than towns. There are fewer towns than villages and so on.

Any urban region will have a city surrounded by several smaller towns and many smaller villages

Settlement Function

• The term function describes what a settlement originally did or still does. It can be the purpose that the settlement was built for, but also relates to any later development and refers to its main activity.

• Look at the following diagram to see examples of this.

Religious centres

Centres of

administration

Commercial centresMarket

towns

Residential or commuter towns

Mining

Defensive

Centres of

administration

Tourist resort

Port

Industrial

Educational

Route centre

Higher up the hierarchy , the greater the range and number of services they have to offer. See the table below to illustrate this:

Village Town City

Primary school YES YES YES

Chemist YES YES YES

Newsagent YES YES YES

Bus service YES YES YES

Pub YES YES YES

Post office YES YES YES

Baker YES YES YES

Grocer YES YES YES

Bank YES YES

Florist YES YES

Small supermarket YES YES

Secondary School YES YES

Butcher YES YES

Clothes shop YES YES

Building society YES

Hospital YES

Superstores YES

Dry cleaners YES

Jewellers YES

Railway YES

College YES

Sports centre YES

Services

Hamlets often have no services except a phone box or post box.

A village has a limited range of essential low order services

Large towns and cities have a wide range of high order services.

People usually have to travel further to use high order services.

Central Place TheoryThe central Place theory sees settlements as places to which people travel to buy something. They travel to a central place from a market area or sphere of influence.

People will only travel a short distance for low order goods that they uses regularly e.g. bread and milk. So that sphere of influence is small. However for high order goods (comparison expensive goods like furniture, clothes etc) they will travel further from a larger sphere of influence.

Not all settlements will fit into these models and patterns. However they are a good generalisation and will hold for most countries. However, as always there will be exceptions e.g. there will be villages that are larger and offer more services than some towns but their population size would still suggest that they are a village.

As settlements do grow and develop over time they may move up the hierarchy e.g. a village becomes a town.

That completes this section on settlement hierarchy and function

Click this box to return to the main menu to choose another topic

Click here to exit the program. Then why not have a look at the sample GCSE questions on Settlement.

Click here to try a short test on what you have just learnt

Growth and Decline of cities

Important terms

• Urbanisation – process of increasing proportion of the population becoming town or city dwellers

• Deurbanisation – The movement of people out of cities to rural areas

• Reurbanisation – Regrowth of cities often due to urban renewal

• Greenbelt – area around cities designed to stop urban sprawl

Urbanisation

• This is the increase in the proportion of people living in towns or cities compared to rural areas.

• As a country becomes more industrial people move to towns and cities to look for work.

• MEDCs tend to have high levels of urbanisation.

Urbanisation is taking place on a global scale

100 years ago only about 10% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. Today this has risen to about 47% and is still rising.

Millionaire cities

A millionaire city is one with a population of over one million people.

There are over 280 millionaire cities in the world, most of these are in LEDCs.

Some cities are ‘mega-cities’ – have over ten million inhabitants e.g. Mexico City, Tokyo

Causes of urbanisation

• Large scale rural to urban migration – often in search of a better life (however this is often not the case)

• Population increase – tends to be faster in urban areas

Problems of urbanisation

• Spontaneous settlements (shanty towns) – found in many LEDC cities. Badly built without basic amenities.

• Overcrowding pressure on services, health care, water, waste disposal etc.

• Some LEDCs are trying to solve these problems with self help schemes.

Other problems

• Too much traffic • Unemployment • Pollution – land, water

and noise

Urbanisation can lead to Urban Sprawl

• If a city is allowed to grow it takes up more and more of the surrounding area.

• Green belts are put in place to stop this.

• A conurbation is formed if a city grows so much it swallows up towns into one large urban area.

Deurbanisation (or counter urbanisation)

• Caused when people decide to move back out from the urban to the rural environment because of these problems.

Deurbanisation is possible because:

• Growth and better transport and communications (don’t have to live where you work)

• Government policies – encourage such a move

• People with more money to own a second home

Counter urbanisation can have an effect on the villages people move to…

Re-urbanisation

• Cities can be regenerated to encourage people to move back.

• Often encourage the renewal of brownfield sites (old derelict land).

Example of Regeneration - London Docklands

• Regeneration of derelict land in London

• Built new roads, the Dockland Light railway and London City airport

• New offices e.g. Canary Wharf

• Created many new jobs

• Built new homes and shops

• Planted over 100,000 trees.

That completes this section on the growth and decline of cities

Click this box to return to the main menu to choose another topic

Click here to exit the program. Then why not have a look at the sample GCSE questions on Settlement.

Click here to try a short test on what you have just learnt

Settlement Land Use

Land Use is exactly what it says – what land is used for, like housing or factories.

We tend to use models to help explain the complex patterns of land use in settlements.

Urban Land Use in MEDCs – Burgess Model – concentric zone

model

This is the best known land use model.

Let’s see how it is built up…..

There are two main models of land use that apply to MEDCs.

Central zone – oldest part, now contains main shops, banks and offices. Called the central Business District or CBD for short.

Industrial area grown up around the original centre of the town (inner city zone)

Cheap housing built to provide homes for the workers in the inner city factories. Often terraced housing.

Inner suburbs – built as people move out from the inner city – larger houses often

semi-detached.

Outer suburbs – largest housing often detached.

So the oldest part of the city is the centre and the newest parts are on the edge

Urban Land Use in MEDCs - Hoyt Model – sector model

Similar to the Burgess models but with obvious differences. Let’s see why…..

This expands the concentric zone model to take into account industrial development along a main routeway into and out of a city.

The inner city housing (yellow) will still surround this (red) zone.

The medium quality housing – inner suburbs (pink) will fill in the gap with the high quality housing stretching across these zones.

It is important to remember that these models are generalisations and real places are all different. In recent years out- of-town shopping centres have begun to change land use patterns. New housing is now often built on brownfield sites (cleared derelict land) instead of the settlement’s edges.

Land use in the Central Business District

Competition for land makes land prices high in the CBD. The CBD contains the main retail and commercial premises, major public buildings and administrative headquarters. Shops selling high order goods and high rise buildings are here, but few people live here. As competition for land is highest here land prices are high. This leads to many high-rise buildings where each piece of land can be used several times.

Urban Land Use in LEDC cities

This looks similar to the MEDC models in shape. However the positioning of the various zones is very different.

Let us compare the LEDC and MEDC models

LEDC

MEDC

CBD

Industrial zone

Low quality housing

Improved housing

Highest quality housing

Note the highest quality housing in an MEDC is on the outside of the city whereas it is next to the CBD in an LEDC.

The poorest housing in an LEDC is on the outside (Often shanty towns), but is near the centre in MEDCs

The Doughnut effectThe doughnut effect occurs when the commercial activity of a city becomes concentrated around the outskirts.

Out-of-town shopping centres have become more common, so shops in the CBD have had problems attracting customers. Chain stores have increasingly located in new shopping malls leading to the high street stores closing down.

This leaves a ‘hollow’ or empty area in the middle of the city. This effect was first seen in the USA but is becoming more common in British cities.

Hollow centre

Movement of economic activity

That completes this section on Settlement Land Use

Click this box to return to the main menu to choose another topic

Click here to exit the program. Then why not have a look at the sample GCSE questions on Settlement.

Click here to try a short test on what you have just learnt

Thank you for using this revision tool to help with your studies of

Settlement.

I hope you have found it useful.

Goodbye