1.5: Rural Settlements

Any form of human dwelling, from a single house to the largest city, is a settlement. In other words, a settlement is a place in which people live and where they carry out a variety of activities, such as residence, trade, agriculture, and manufacturing etc.

Types of Settlements

There are types of settlements, such as rural and urban settlements. Most of the rural settlements are hamlets and villages, although not all are.

Pattern or Shape of Settlement

• Dispersed Settlement:

  A dispersed settlement pattern is one in which individual houses and farms are widely scattered throughout the countryside. They are common in sparsely populated areas. This happens because it became more convenient to build farmhouses out in the fields of the newly established farms.

  
  

• Nucleated Settlement:

  Nucleated settlements are those in which houses and buildings are tightly clustered around a central feature such as a church, village green, or crossroad.

  
  

• Linear Settlement:

  In a linear settlement, houses are spread out along a road, railway track, or a river. Linear settlements are also found where poor drainage prohibits growth in a certain direction.

  
  

• Cruciform Settlement:

  Cruciform settlements are found at intersections of roads and usually consist of lines of buildings radiating out from the crossroad.

Some of the Factors That Favour Nucleation

• Joint and cooperative working of the land

  
  

• Defence, for example, hilltop locations to protect from other people

  
  

• Shortage of water is causing people to relocate to areas close to springs

  
  

• Near important junctions and crossroads, as these favour trade and communications

Site and Situation

The site of a settlement is the actual land on which a settlement is built, whereas the situation is the location of the settlement in relation to the area around it.

Examples of sites: on flat land, on fertile soil, on a hilltop, etc. Examples of situations: close to a reliable water supply, close to a main route, etc.

Some of the favourable sites for settlement include:

• Availability of water

  
  

• Free from flooding

  
  

• Availability of resources

  
  

• Availability of good soil for agriculture

  
  

• Potential for trade and commerce

  
  

• Climatic condition

A dry point is an elevated site in an area of otherwise poor natural drainage. It includes small hills or islands. Water supply, fertile alluvial soils, and the use of a valley as a line of communication are all positive advantages.

A wet point site is a site with a reliable supply of water from springs or wells in an otherwise dry area. Spring line villages at the foot of chalk and limestone ridges are good examples. A spring line settlement occurs when there is a line of sites where water is available.

Functions

The function of a settlement relates to its economic and social development and refers to its main activities. Generally, the larger the settlement, the more functions it will have. Larger settlements tend to be multifunctional.

Functions include: 

Agriculture, mining, town, fishing, lumbering (logging), cattle rearing, quarrying, ports, weaving, pottery, commercial, administrative, residential, etc.

Amenities

Market, post office, unmetalled road, primary school, primary health centre, electricity, drinking water, etc.

REVISION QUESTIONS

1. Suggest three possible reasons for the growth of large settlements.

Ideas such as:

• Flat land/room for expansion

• Industry/factories/businesses

• Markets for the surrounding area/trade from the surrounding area

• Migration (from the surrounding rural area)

• Commercial/retail development

• Mining/raw materials/extraction of resources

• Meeting of roads/route centre/transport links meet together

• Central location

  
  

2. Explain why some people in MEDCs (More Economically Developed Countries) are choosing to live in rural areas rather than living in towns and cities.

Ideas such as:

• Some people like tranquility/quiet/more peaceful/lack of noise

• Lack of specified pollution (air/water)

• Retirement

• Less stressful living environment/too crowded in cities

• Lower crime rates/less vandalism/graffiti/safer to raise a family

• People working from home

• Improvement in communications/transport/greater personal mobility

• Work in the tourist industry

• Work in farming/they are farmers

• Scenic beauty/no visual pollution

• More land available/larger houses with gardens (or vice versa for cities)

• Less traffic congestion/less traffic

  
  

3. Explain why different rural settlement patterns develop in different areas.

Ideas such as:

• Influenced by relief/large area of flat land

• Land use influences the pattern

• Influenced by communications/along roads

  
  

Ideas linked to specific settlement patterns:

• Linear settlements develop in valleys/next to rivers

• Nucleated settlements grow up at junctions/where roads meet/rivers meet

• Nucleated along bridging points

• Nucleated wet points/dry points

• In farming areas, the population will be dispersed/spread across the farmland

• In coalfields, population will be nucleated/grow close to mines

• Where settlements have developed at defensive sites, they would be nucleated

Written by Zemen

Edited by Krithigka Gobbi