SETTLEMENTS & URBAN MORPHOLOGY

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Settlement – a place where people live

Dispersed settlements
Temporary camps of hunters/herders
Permanent settlements
Large urban agglomerations

Conurbation/ metropolitan Area – A super-city consisting of multiple cities and towns;

Population is usually several million

Large city – A city with a large population (1 million ppl) and many services

provided

City – Having abundant services, population of over 100, 000 people

Large town – A population of 20,000 to 100, 000; urban area with a particular

administration/legal/historical status

Town – a population of 1000 to 20,000 people

Village – Generally doesn’t have many services, population of 100 to 1000; clustered human settlements/community

Hamlet – Tiny population (> 100) and very few services and buildings

Isolated Dwelling – Only 1-2 buildings or families, negligible services

***A conurbation is an urban area comprising of a number of metropolitan areas that are connected with one another and are usually interdependent with one another economically and socially. Merged after continual population growth and physical expansion to form a continuous urban and industrially developed area

Site – Actual piece of ground on which settlement is built; the settlement’s exact location

SITE FACTORS:

Water Supply – Clean supply of water for consumption and domestic usage
Relief – Area needs to be high enough to be safe from flooding, low enough to be sheltered from strong winds
Defense – Protection from attackers (natural e.g. hilltop, inside of a river meander)
Transport – A site at crossroads, rivers or coast gives easier access to other settlements
Soil – Deep fertile soil made farming and animal rearing easier
Resources – Sources required for building, heating, fuel etcetera (timber, rock wood)

Situation – Refers to location of the settlement in relation to surrounding areas

*If a settlement has food access to natural resources and other settlements, it grows in size. Many settlements with a good site and situation have grown into large cities.

EXAMPLE CITY – PARIS

Capital of France, largest city in Europe, population of 10 million
Began in 3 BC
Sited on a small island in river Siene
Site good for defense and a good crossing point across the river
Fertile soil of Siene was excellent for farming
Under Roman rule, Paris grew and became the center of a network of roads across Europe
Center of many international air routes, railways and roads (based on site)

Settlement Patterns

Dispersed – Far apart from each other

Linear – Long and narrow settlements

Nucleated – Clustered settlements

*Dispersed settlements are usually farms (field land) or in

mountainous regions (hard to live in areas)

*Linear settlements follow feature of land (roads, shape,

railways, rivers etc.)

*Buildings clustered around a central point (crossroad,

church, water supply, market etc.) in a nucleated settlement

*Planned settlements have a regular pattern

City Layout – The easy a city’s streets and buildings are distributed

TYPES:

Irregular: Unplanned urban growth, no particular order, narrow and winding streets, few open spaces (medieval/Muslim towns)
Grid Plan: Streets run at right angles to each other, typical of North American cities
Radio-centric: Streets radiate out from a central point

FUNCTIONS OF A SETTLEMENT

***Activities that take place inside a settlement

Farming
Markets and inns
Industrial
Residential
Administrative
Commercial
Services (schools, libraries, hospitals)
Tourism

Problems of Urban Growth

Housing – Lack of housing, affordability of proper housing; leads to development of squatter settlements
1. 1. Provide high rise flats (e.g. Singapore & Hong Kong)
  2. Low cost housing to relocate slum dwellers
  3. Improve living conditions of squatter settlements (piped water and sanitation)
  4. Reduce rural-urban migration by improving rural services/opportunities
Water Supply – Shortage of water and poor piping system
1. 1. Build water reservoirs
  2. More treatment plants, remove and replace deteriorating pipes
  3. Awareness of water conservation
Transport – Too many cars, poor public transport system
1. 1. Extensive framework of roads and railways
  2. Build expressways and wider roads for traffic flow
  3. Encourage and develop public transport
Pollution – Domestic and industrial waste contribution to land pollution
1. 1. Impose heavy fines
  2. Collect waste 3x a day
  3. Increase sewage pipelines
  4. Piling work to be done in daylight
  5. More tree plantation
  6. Awareness of health, hygiene and pollution

Rural settlements are changing in both LEDCs and MEDCs due to the following:

Migration (rural -> urban & urban -> rural)
Urban growth
Technological change
Rural planning policies
Government finding

CHANGES IN RURAL AREAS IN LEDCs

CHANGES IN RURAL AREAS OF MEDCs

*Rural population has changed in character (gentrification)

Counter urbanization

The economy is no longer dominated by agriculture and employment in agriculture

(mechanized farming)

Farm diversification (changing use of area)
Higher house prices and lack of affordable housing
Formation of metropolitan villages
Rural depopulation
Decline of rural services and public transport (everyone has cars)

Urbanization – The growth in the population of people living in towns or cities.

Urban regeneration: Improve an urban area in decline with a mix of urban redevelopment and renewal
Urban redevelopment: complete change of existing site infrastructure/buildings and construction of new buildings from scratch
Urban renewal: Keeping best elements of existing urban environments and adapting them to new usage

1 – BURGESS – CONCENTRIC ZONE MODEL

2 – HOYT – SECTOR MODEL

3 – ALONSO’s THEORY OF BIDRENT

***Land expensive towards center, so high, middle, low respectively

Benefits of Urbanization

Economic Growth
Social mobilization
Empowerment of women
Greater access to education and health services (contraceptives!)
Helps decrease population growth
Enormous opportunity for sustainable urban living in Africa and Asia

Disadvantages of Urbanization

Increasing separation of wealthy and poor
Urban sprawl results in inefficient usage of land and slum development
Risky and unhealthy living conditions in slums (pollution!)
Increase in slum dwellers (1990 – 650 million to 2012 – 863 million)
Global urbanization is an inevitable trend, slum growth due to bad decisions
Violence & unemployment
Pressure on resources and infrastructure

***Favelas in Rio Olympics

***Most cities are built around coastal areas (trade and transport) and are more susceptible to climate change, yet more rural-urban migration

TOP 10 ISSUES CITIES FACE/ MUST OVERCOME

Economic Development
Infrastructure
Public Safety
Budgets
Education
Housing
Data technology
Environment/energy
Demographics
Healthcare

Brownfield site – Derelict or underused industrial building and land that have potential for re-development

Counter-urbanization – A process involving the movement of population away from urban areas to a new town/estate/village

Re-urbanization – The development of activities to increase population densities within the existing built-up area of a city; may include redevelopment of brownfield sites or new business enterprises

Suburb – A residential area within or outside the boundaries of a city

Suburbanization – The outward growth of towns and cities to villages and rural areas

Urban sprawl – Uncontrolled and unplanned physical expansion of an urban area into countryside

Residential segregation – The physical separation of population by culture, income, or other criteria

Poverty

Absolute Poverty – Measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter (not concerned with quality of life issues or inequality in society)

Relative Poverty – In relation to the economic status of other members of the society, people are poor of they fall below prevailing standards of living in a given societal context

- Lack of basic capability to function
- Lack of provision by a community of the basic social services required
- An income below the country’s poverty line
HOUSING POOR
HEALTH POOR
TIME POOR

Sustainable Development Goals (Created in 2016 to be done by 2030)

1. NO POVERTY

2. ZERO HUNGER

6. CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

8. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Causes of Poverty

Lack of education
Lack of resources
History
War and political instability
National debt
Discrimination and social inequality
Vulnerability to natural disasters
Dysfunctional families and bad parenting

How to Fight Poverty

The affected need to be willing to change
Issues must be identified
Be aware, generate awareness
Donate and volunteer
Create jobs
Raise minimum wage
Resource and services accessible to citizens
Pay equity
Education
Medical insurance
Reform criminal justice system
Self-help programs and projects

TYPES OF WASTE

Liquid
Solid
Organic
Recyclable
Hazardous

Waste Management

Landfill (Burying waste in land, developing countries)
Incineration/Combustion
Recovery and Recycling
Plasma Gasification (convert trash to renewable energy)
Composting (organic material to fertilizer)
Waste to energy (heating and other purposes)
Avoidance/waste minimization
Disposal in ocean/sea