Settlement

Reasons for settlement

• Climate – people choose areas that are not
too cold or too hot
• Vegetation – linked to climate
• Resources and human activity – people
attracted to areas where resources such as
minerals, water and soil for farming
• Natural physical features – beautiful areas
attract people to reside
• Laws – Government regulations both past and
present influence settlement
 Urban Settlement

• Urban settlement is a built up area with many functions and services

• Land use is for many different functions
– CBD – Central Business District – commercial and business centre -
often called city centre
– Light and heavy industry – clothing and computer parts (light ind) and
car manufacturing and chemicals (heavy ind)
– Residential areas – high, middle and lower income residential areas
where people live
– Shopping centre – close to residential areas and large malls on the
outskirts
– Recreation – parks, swimming pools and golf courses
 Settlements

• Rural settlement usually has one main

purpose
• Primary activities – fishing, farming,
forestry and mining
• Secondary activity – a primary activity
being processed or made into something
• Tertiary – Service activity – tourism, shop or
education
 Information about aerial photographs
• Oblique – looks across the land from above – picture
slanted – features closer look bigger
• Vertical – taken directly above
- different features have
similar scale

• Aerial photos show different features on the land as they

are in reality
– Natural features – rivers, hills, wild forests
– Constructed features – roads, buildings, harbours, fences,
orchards
Identifying land uses in urban settlements

• Large-scale map – detail in fairly small area –

1cm = 100m (1:10 000)
• Small scale map – 1cm = 10km (1:1000 000)
• Complete activity on you own:
– Activity 2 (leave out Qu1)
– Activity 3
– Activity 4 – Qu 3 and 4
– Activity 5 (not Qu 9)
 Urbanisation
• Movement from Rural to urban areas
– % of people in rural areas is decreasing
• Africa least most urbanised continent in the
world
• Reasons for urbanisation include push factors
which are why people leave
• Pull factors is what attracts them to cities –
see page 109 for push and pull factors