Settlements

• Dispersed: Found in sparsely populated rural areas - farms, isolated houses
• Linear: Often where there is a physical feature (river, road), settlements group and form a line along it's path
• Nucleated: form when settlement tightly cluster around a central feature

  -flat land, nodal point, natural resources, water source, bridging point
• Rural: an area with less than 10,000 people living in it's boundaries
• Urban: an area with more than 10,000 people living in it's boundaries
• Growth of settlements: climate, raw materials, fertile land, location, historical

  Functions of settlements: trade, tourism, political, agriculture, mining, industrial
• Settlement hierarchy

  
• Threshold population: minimum number of people necessary before a particular good/service can be provided in that area
• Villages and hamlets = low order services (post-office)

  Towns = low and high order services (school)

  Cities = high order services (hospitals)
• Kibera: 1 million/2 km squared, unsanitary - 20% children die before 5, open sewer - children play in contaminated water, 65% has electricity, bacteria - 60% adult have HIV, unsafe housing - 12ft/12ft mud walls, very happening area, 5km from Nairobi (Nairobi university)
• Sphere of influence: the range people will travel to obtain a certain servie/object

  (the larger the settlement, the greater the influence
• Low-order goods: things bought regularly (bread, milk)
• High-order goods: things bought less frequently (cars, houses)
• Characteristics of Urban areas: CBD, multi-storey buildings, vertical zoning (lack of space), concentrated retail and office, traffic
• Characteristics of industrial zones: factories, older, worker terraced housing
• Characteristics of suburban areas: residential areas
• Greenfield: an area that has not been developed previously
• Brownfield: old industrial site that is cleared for building development
• Green belt: areas where building is restricted
• Urban sprawl: Spread of urban developments
• Cause of urban sprawl: cheaper land, housing availability, space, access to transport

  Problems: loss of farmland, loss of 'green spaces, impact on ecosystems
• Gentrification: development of a city neighborhood from low-high value, a poor area experiences an influx of educated or wealthy people who gradually renovate and increase property value

  ->this forces out and displaces low-income people
• Problema with urban areas: congestion/traffic, lack of space, pollution, inequality, housing, crime
• Brownfield A&D

  A - helps revive old and disused urban areas, reduces loss of countryside, services already there, located near CBD, housing and transport

  D - often more expensive as must be cleared and renovated, higher levels of pollution
• Greenfield A&D

  A - healthier environment, close to countryside, lots of space, cheaper

  D - farmland lost, deforestation, far from transport, no services in place
• Rural -> Urban

  Push = low wages, limited education and healthcare, limited job opportunities, limited public services

  Pull = higher wages, improved education and healthcare, better job opportunities, public utilities/services, protection to natural hazards
• Problems of urbanisation

  • unemployment
  • poor housing/lack of housing
  • slums develop
  • air pollution
  • traffic congestion
• Resources which would be useful for settlements:

  • trees, wood
  • rock, stone
  • farmland
  • flat land
  • gentle sloping
• Describe site and settlement:

  • surrounded by valleys
  • fertile soil
  • flat land
  • near mountains
  • near forest
  • near farmland
• Why a settlement has remained small:

  • not near or connected to main roads - difficult to travel
  • limited job opportunities as small settlement and cant expand into valley (only have agriculture jobs) - so people don't want to move, employment limited
  • limited flat land - hard to build
• Why might population go down:

  • migration
  • low birth rate
  • high death rate