Settlement
Settlement refers to the action of people settling down and establishing themselves in an area.
1. Urban or Rural?
Depending on the form they take, the settlement can be rural (where the population lives in
village) or urban (where the population lives in cities).
Criteria
Place
Village
City
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Inhabitants
Few
Many
Size
Small
Big
Streets and
Buildings
Economic
Activity
Services
Narrow streets,
Low buildings
Crop
agriculture,
Livestock
farming,
fishing,...
(primary
sector)
Limited
Industry,
Trade,
Wide streets,
Transport,
Tall buildings
Education,...
(ternary sector)
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«Settlement»
Wide variety
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2. Rural Settlement
They are small settlements with few people.
More than half world population lives in rural areas, althrough this proporion is constantly
dismishining.
They principal activity is relacionated with the primary sector (agriculture, livestock farming,
fishing,...).
TYPES OF RURAL SETTLEMENT
Dependig of its form of agruppation:
•
Dispersed Settlement:
population lives in separeted houses, farms, hamlets, etc, scattered around the countryside.
•
Nucleated Settlement:
population lives in villages with houses close, not so far.
•
Interspected Settlement:
it is a mixture of the other types, scattered houses between nuclei of population.
Dependig of its shape:
•
Linear:
houses are disposed throught the sides of a road
•
Nucleated:
population lives in a nuclei, lots of houses toghether forming a circle
•
Radial:
a mixture of the others, ir seems like a radial star
Dispersed
Nucleated
Interpected
Linear
Nucleated
Radial
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3. Urban Settlement
They are big settlements with many people.
They are more common in the MEDCs (more economic developed countries) than in de LEDCs
(less economic developed countries).
They principal activity is relacionated with the ternary sector and even secundary (education,
trasport, trade, industry,...).
FUNCTIONS OF THE CITIES
Fuction
Characteristics
Examples
Residential
Common funtion of all cities
London, Beijing, Tokyo, Rabat
Commercial
Existence of ports, warehouse,
shops, etc...
Rotterdam, Hamburg,
Liverpool
Industrial
Existence of numerous
industries
Detroit, Milan, Bilbao
Political and Administrative
Consentration of numerous
industries.
Paris, Londo, Tokyo, Brussels,
New York
Cultural
Existence of cultural
institutions like museums and
universities or monuments.
Oxford, Cambridge, Louvain,
Venice, Rome, Florence
Tourism
Presence of monuments that
attract tourists.
Venice, Rome, Florence,
Toledo, Paris
Radiocentric plan
Irregular plan
URBAN PLANS
Orthogonal plan
...
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