Rural & urban settlements

• A rural settlement are unifunctional, including primary activities for jobs
• Urban settlements are multifunctional with secondary and tertiary functions
• A settlement is a place where people live and function together as a single, connected system. These are either rural or urban.
• Settlement hierachy : Rank settlements according to size
• Site : Describes the place a settlement is. It describes the type of land it has been built on.
• Situation :Describes where the settlements are located in relation to (other surroundings roads , shops etc.)
• A nucleated/ clustered settlement is where houses are grouped very closely together.
• Dispersed/ isolated areas are settlements where houses are spaced over a wide area, farmers are the common residents of these areas.
• Rectangular pattern: Most common in rural settlements, developed on flat, fertile land and over wide valleys.
• Linear pattern : Houses are aligned along the side of a road, railway or river.
• Circular and semi-shaped : Settlements along sea coasts, mainly used for lodging and fishing.
• Star shaped pattern : At places where roads converge, the road width is reduced to allow for the movement of vehicles.
• Rural depopulation: The decline of population in rural areas caused by the migration to urban areas.
• Urbanisation: Rapid growth of towns and cities due to industrialisation and modernisation.
• Push factors: Reasons forcing people to more urban areas:

  
  

  Lack of job opportunities

  Fewer schools

  Natural disasters

  Water shortages
• Pull factors: Reasons attracting people o urban areas, such as better schooling, salaries and happier form of living.
• Strategies to deal with rural depopulation:

  Job creation

  Good education

  Encouragement of local production

  Less children
• Impact of Urbanisation on rural areas :

  Farms neglected and abandoned

  Villages decline

  Schools close

  Fewer jobs