Human

Settlements Planning

Activity 1
A settlement is a place where people live - city, town
or village – with all the social, material, organizational,
spiritual and cultural elements that sustain it.

The fabric of human settlements consists of physical
elements and services to which these elements
provide the material support.



A settlement Consists of

The Content: Man, Society and Networks

The Container: Physical Settlement (Nature and Shell)

Natural Elements

Man-made (artificial) Elements

Settlement Characteristics: The Ekistics Elements: The Physical Components:

Area: How large the area of a Shelter: the superstructures
settlement is. of different shapes, size, type
and materials erected by
Site: describes the actual land mankind for security, privacy
upon which a settlement is and protection from the
built. elements and for his
singularity with in a
Population: The size and type community.
of people that live in a
settlement. Infrastructure: the complex
Nature: earth and natural networks designed to deliver
Function: The function of a site where the settlements to or remove from the
settlement relates to its are built. shelter people, goods,
economic and social energy or information.
development and refers to its Man: creates and inhabits
main activities. the settlement. Services: required by a
community for the
Natural Boundaries: describes Society: forms within people fulfillment of its functions as
where a settlement is located in and their settlements a social body, such as
relation to other surrounding education, health, culture,
features such as other Shells: Structures built to welfare, recreation and
settlements, rivers and house other elements. nutrition.
communications.
Networks: functions that
Shape: describes how the allow settlements to survive
settlement is laid out. Its and grow.
pattern.
Reasons for Forming Settlements. Location of settlements Pattern of settlement

Factors include: Plain
•  Physical Features Plateau
•  Body of water (transportation Coastal
routes, water for drinking and Forest
farming) Desert
•  Flat land (easy to build)
•  Fertile soil (for crops)
•  Forests (timber and housing) Physical form of the
settlement
Human Factors
•  People who share a common Linear
language, religion or Rectangular
culture,social network or Circular
supports Star
•  Quality of life – facilities, Cross-shaped
education, etc…
•  Employment Layout of settlement
•  Religious/Cultural Beliefs
Irregular: The urban growth has not been planned. It has no
particular order. The streets may be narrow and winding. There are
few open spaces.

Grid/ Grid-Iron: streets run at right angles to each other, forming a
grid.

Radiocentric/ Radial: The streets radiate out from a central point.
Dispersed settlements are usually
farms. They are spread out because of
the space taken up by fields. Other
dispersed settlements are found in
mountainous areas where it is difficult
to live.

Linear settlements sometimes follow
the shape of the land. It is easier to
build on the floor of a valley than on the
steep sides. Linear settlements also
follow features such as roads, railway
lines or rivers.

Nucleated settlements are where
buildings are clustered round a central
point. The centre of the settlement may
be a crossroads, a church, a water
supply, or a market place. Nucleated
settlements also occur on hill tops.

Planned settlements often have a
regular pattern. They may have a square
shape, or a crescent shape for example.
Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is a planned
settlement in the shape of an aeroplane
Street Patterns

Linear





Circular
Radial (star)
Hexagonal




Grid
Grid iron
Organic grid
Radial grid



Multi-centered
Hierarchy - Types of settlements
Functions of settlement: Kind of Settlement in Relation to Function
Functions are things that happen there
Resource-Based Settlement: settlement a result of a
Residential product or resources these included fishing, forestry,
Administrative mining, and recreation.
Institutional Example: Atlantic Maritimes, Boreal Shield, Boreal Plain,
Cultural (religion) Montane Cordillera, Pacific Maritimes
Industrial
Trading and Commercial Service-Based Settlement
Defence Often based on transportation Provides a variety of
services which are needed by people in lightly populated
areas.
Example: gas stations, motels, post offices, restaurants

Evolution of settlement planning

Micro-Space
Man – Room – Dwelling – Cluster – Neighbourhood – District

Middle Scale
Village - Small Town – Town – City

Macro-Scale
Metropolis – Conurbation – Megalopolis – Urban Region – Urban Continent - Ecumenopolis
 Push – Pull Factors:

Push factors encourage a family Pull factors encourage a family

to emigrate to immigrate

(pushes them to leave a (pulls them in to move to a
location). location).
Conurbation/metropolitan area – a super-city
consisting of multiple cities and towns. The
population is usually several million.

Large City – a city with a large population and many
services. The population is >1 million people.

City – a city would have abundant services, but not
as many as a large city. The population of a city is
over 100,000 people.

Large town – a large town has a population of
20,000 to 100,000.

Town – a town has a population of 1,000 to 20,000

Village – a village generally does not have many
services, possibly only a small corner shop or post
office. A village has a population of 100 to 1,000.

Hamlet – a hamlet has a tiny population (<100) and
very few (if any) services, and few buildings.

Isolated Dwelling – an isolated dwelling would only
have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it. It would have
negligible services, if any.
Human Settlements Planning

Activity 2
Analytical Writing

Comparison of the Context

Similarities and Adaptations of Practices
Compile Booklet

1.  Number of pages in multiples of 4

2.  Alignment

3.  Composition

4.  Clarity of photographs and Maps

5.  Well rendered Maps

6.  Corrected spellings and grammer

7.  Neat sketches

8.  Understandable handwriting

9.  Printed Copy – No sticking of any thing. A final

efficiently done