HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

AND PLANNING
UNIT - 1
What is a settlement?
• Settlements inhabited by man
• Cluster of dwellings of any type or
size where human beings live
• Created through movement of man
in space and definition of
boundaries of territorial interest for
physical and institutional purposes
Settlements evolution
• Agricultural societies needed a
system of easy land division for
crop planning and land ownership.
They also needed a system of land
plotting for re-division and
reapportionment after the flood,
an annual event on the Nile, the
Tigris, and Euphrates rivers.
Rectilinear plotting suited all these Rectilinear layout is found in the entire history of town
needs perfectly. It enabled men to planning. It was used in the ancient and later Greek towns, in
Roman colonial out posts, and in the Indian, Chinese, and
plan the use of land pre Columbian cities. But rectilinear was not the only
geometric system used in the history.
• The grid iron layout was accompanied and
probably preceded by an equally
important system, that is the circular form
of settlements.
• The grid had been the product of the
farmer; the circle was originally the
product of herdsman, the descendant of
the hunter and the ancestor of the
warrior.
• The circle was found an ideal form for
fencing in cattle, for its enclosed a
maximum of land with minimum of fence.
The major role of the circular form of
town layout was to be a defensive one.
Early fortified towns, usually built on
hilltops or on islands, had protective walls
which were more or less circular
• The immediate descendant of the
circular form was the radio centric,
the means by which circular
settlement enlarge. The radio
centric pattern develops from the
circular by first growing outward along
the radial routes; the wedge shaped
areas between the radials filling in
gradually. Fortress cities, for example,
developed small settlements around
their gates along the road ways.
Eventually these circular settlements
grew enough to require a second
encircling wall, and then a third and
fourth. This process kept repeating
itself, from ancient Athens or Rome to
nineteenth century.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SETTLEMENTS
Nature and terrain, altitude , climate, availability of water

Physical
factors

Cultural and
Security
ethnic
factors
factors
Caste, tribal structure and religion Defence from invasions and wild animals
Settlement Characteristics
• Area: How large the area of a settlement is.
• Site: describes the actual land upon which a settlement is built.
• Population: The size and type of people that live in a settlement.
• Function: The function of a settlement relates to its economic and
social development and refers to itsmain activities.
• Situation: describes where a settlement is located in relation to
other surrounding features such as other settlements, rivers and
communications.
• Shape: describes how the settlement is laid out. Its pattern
SETTLEMENT HIERARCHY
TYPES OF SETTLEMENTS
Elements of Human Settlements
FOUR BASIC PARTS OF COMPOSITE
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
4 PARTS

HOMOGENOUS CENTRAL CIRCULATORY SPECIAL

THE FIELDS THE BUILT UP VILLAGE THE ROADS AND PATHS MONASTRY
CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN
SETTLEMENTS
• EKISTICS UNITS
• EKISTICS ELEMENTS
 EVOLUTION OF HUMAN
SETTLEMENTS
• PHASE – 1 - PRIMITIVE NON
ORGANISED HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
• PHASE – 2 – PRIMITIVE ORGANISED
SETTLEMENT – EOPOLIS
• PHASE – 3 – STATIC URBAN
SETTLEMENT / CITIES – POLIS
• PHASE -4 – DYNAMIC URBAN
SETTLEMENTS – DYNAPOLIS
• PHASE – 5 – UNIVERSAL CITY
ECUMENOPOLIS