The main characteristics of urban settlements are:
- The main occupation of the people is related to secondary and tertiary sectors.
- There is a density of human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways.
- Urban settlements are large in size with a high density of population.
What are the characteristics of Urban Settlement?
Urban settlements are multifunctional (they have many functions), i.e. they have both secondary activities (factories/manufacturing) and tertiary activities (services). Settlements are classified from the smallest to the largest. A farmstead, hamlet and village are rural settlements.
What are the characteristics of urbanization?
There is a density of human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways. Urban settlements are large in size with a high density of population. What are the problems of urbanization?
What are the characteristics of urban places?
Aside from the population, urban places also have common characteristics. Think of ‘urban’ and many people think of roads, buildings and infrastructure like electricity cables and sewage systems. Others will think of shops, offices and busy transport hubs.
What are the characteristics of a settlement?
A settlement is a grouping of people, buildings, communication networks and activities that function as a single, integrated system on a regular, daily basis. (2) It is an urban settlement. (2) High-order function: Needed less often; has a large sphere of influence, large range and large threshold population.
What are the characteristics of an urban area?
Aside from the population, urban places also have common characteristics. Think of ‘urban’ and many people think of roads, buildings and infrastructure like electricity cables and sewage systems. Others will think of shops, offices and busy transport hubs.
Why is it so hard to classify settlements?
This is mainly because as settlements grow, they are renamed, merge together and so on. The result is that deciding what is ‘urban’ is highly subjective, depending on the way that the urban area is classified, as shown in the diagram below. More details about urban growth can be found on the page ‘Growth processes of cities’ on this site.
How have cities developed?
Historically cities have developed spontaneously – meaning their growth has not been planned. A combination of natural increase and in-migration from rural areas led to the increase in population in cities. This is still the case for cities in the poorest countries. Cities in the lowest income countries frequently have rapid and spontaneous urban development. Migration and a high rate of population growth result in a shortage of adequate housing, so people are forced to build their own dwellings. These areas are sometimes known as slums, shanty towns, favelas, champas and bustees but are properly known as informal settlements. Informal settlements where the residents do not own the land and do not pay rent to a landlord are known as squatter settlements.
What does it mean when a settlement faces south?
facing south – in the northern hemisphere, it means the settlement will be warmed by the sun during the day (also good for growing crops locally)
How many people are in a town?
Town – varying in size from a few thousand people to several tens of thousands , depending on the characteristics of the town
Why are cities in the poorest countries forced to build their own homes?
Cities in the lowest income countries frequently have rapid and spontaneous urban development. Migration and a high rate of population growth result in a shortage of adequate housing, so people are forced to build their own dwellings.
How many people are in an urban area?
United States: the US considers urban to refer to two types of area – Urbanized Areas (UAs) of 50,000 or more people, and Urban Clusters (UCs) of at least 2,500 and less than 50,000 people (US Census Bureau, 2016)
What are the characteristics of an urban community?
Some of the most important characteristics of urban community are as follows: 1. Large size and high density of population 2. Heterogeneity 3. Anonymity 4. Mobility and transiency 5. Formality of relations 6. Social distance 7. Regimentation 8. Segmentation of personality.
How does urban life affect personality?
Urban life and personality are affected by the physical and social conditions of urban living—anonymity, social distance, speed and tension, regimentation, impersonal social interaction, mobility and transiency etc. These conditions produce impersonality, insecurity and segmentation of personality, which appear to be universal characteristics ...
What is the impersonality of urban life?
The impersonality of urban life is a necessary and convenient way of urban living. 6. Social distance: City people are physically crowded but socially distant. Social distance is a product of anonymity, impersonality and heterogeneity. Occupational differences may be even more important sources of social distance.
What is routine urban contact?
Most routine urban contacts are of secondary group rather than primary group nature. Most contacts are instrumental, that is, we use another person as a necessary functionary to fulfill our purposes. We do not necessarily interact with entire persons but with people in terms of their formal roles as postman, bus driver, office assistant, policeman and other functionaries. We thus interact with only a segment of the person, not with the whole person.
What is the urban mode of life?
Urban mode of life is quite contrary to traditional rural life, though it has affected rural life which is also in the process of change. Its characteristics are represented by the terms ‘urbanism’ and the process of its expansion is called ‘urbanisation’.
Is the size of an urban community larger than the size of a rural community?
The size of the urban community is much larger than the rural community. Not only this, in urban areas, there is high density of population. Density increases the number of short-term, impersonal and utilitarian social relationships a person is likely to have.
Is urban population heterogeneous?
Urban population is heterogeneous. It consists of various shades of people—different castes, classes, ethnic groups, religions, etc. They are not all alike. Urban community is noteworthy for its diversity. 3. Anonymity: The sheer pressure of number marks for anonymity.
Characteristic of Rural settlements
Population density is very low. It is 31 to 40 villages per 100 sq. km in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and less than 20 villages per 100 sq. km in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and some of the North-East part of India.
4. Megalopolis
It is a Greek word, that means “ great city “. It was coined by Jean Gottman in 1987. North to South of Washington of United States is the best example of these type.
5. Conurbation
This term is coined by Patrik Geddes in 1915. The word conurbation is made up of two words, one is ‘ con’ and another is ‘ urban’. That means continuous urbanization.
Characteristics of Urban settlements
Here, the size of population density is very high. In fact, it is larger than the rural community.
What are the problems of human settlements in developing countries?
The settlements in developing countries experience various problems, such as the unsustainable density of population, overcrowded housing and streets, shortage of drinking water facilities. They also lack basic infrastructural facilities such as electricity, sewage disposal, ...
How are cities, towns and rural settlements connected?
Cities, towns and rural settlements are connected through the movements of goods, people and resources. Urban-rural linkages are of critical interest in the sustainability of human settlements. As the swelling of the rural population has outpaced the creation of employment and economic opportunities, the rural-to-urban movement has firmly increased, especially in the developing countries, which has put a tremendous burden on urban infrastructure and services that are already under severe stress. It is essential to eradicate rural poverty and to enhance the quality of living conditions, as well as to generate employment and educational opportunities in rural settlements. The full benefit must be taken of the corresponding contributions and linkages of rural and urban regions by balancing their different economic, social and environmental demands.
How many people live in unauthorised settlements in India?
In most million-plus cities in India, one in four residents lives in unauthorised settlements, which are expanding twice as quick as the rest of the cities. Even in the Asia Pacific nations, around 60% of the urban population resides in squatter settlements.
What is the effect of the decreasing job opportunities in the rural, as well as small urban areas of the developing countries?
The decreasing job opportunities in the rural, as well as small urban areas of the developing countries, is continuously pushing the population to the urban areas. The huge migrant population creates a pool of unskilled and semi-skilled workforce, which is already overfilled in urban areas.
What are the social ills of developing countries?
Cities in developing countries experience several social ills. Inadequate financial resources fail to produce sufficient social infrastructure providing to the primary needs of the large population. The available health and educational facilities remain beyond the grasp of the urban poor.
How many cities will have at least 1 million people by 2030?
In 2016, there were around 512 cities with at least 1 million residents globally. By 2030, a predicted 662 cities will have at least 1 million inhabitants.
What is a city viewed as?
A city may be viewed as a leading town, which has surpassed its local or regional competitors. Lewis Mumford had said, “ the city is, in fact, the physical form of the highest and most complex type of associative life”. Cities are much bigger than towns and have a larger number of commercial functions. They tend to have transportation terminals, influential financial institutions and provincial administrative offices. When the population passes the one million mark, it is assigned the status of a million city.
What is settlement in geography?
Settlement is a place where people live and interact through activities such as agriculture , trading and entertainment. Settlement in geography help us to understand man’s relationship with his environment.
What is rural settlement?
A rural settlement is a community involved predominantly in primary activities such as farming, lumbering and mining.
Is there a correlation between population size and density?
There is often correlation between functions, population sizes and population density. A rural settlement tends to have small population. Urban settlement often has a large population size and density. Physical environment determine the site of a settlement depend on:
What are rural settlements?
Rural settlements are mainly unifunctional (the y have one main function) with only primary economic activities occurring, e.g. farming or forestry.
What is the classification of settlements?
Settlements are classified from the smallest to the largest.
What are human factors?
Human factors: Sites with historical, cultural or social value attract people to live in the area.
Where do break of bulk towns develop?
Break-of-bulk towns or cities: They develop at a point where the type of transport changes. This is most often at a harbour where the transport changes from sea to land.
Why is it so hard to build on clay?
Soil: People prefer to build on soil which allows water to drain through it. It is difficult to build on clay because water collects on top of this type of soil.
What are the characteristics of American settlement?
Another special characteristic of American settlement, one that became obvious only by the mid-20th century, is the convergence of rural and urban modes of life. The farmsteads—and rural folk in general—have become increasingly urbanized, and agricultural operations have become more automated, while the metropolis grows more gelatinous, unfocused, and pseudo-bucolic along its margins.
What is the impression of the settled portion of the American landscape, rural or urban, is one of disorder and inco?
The overall impression of the settled portion of the American landscape, rural or urban, is one of disorder and incoherence, even in areas of strict geometric survey. The individual landscape unit is seldom in visual harmony with its neighbour, so that, however sound in design or construction the single structure may be, the general effect is untidy. These attributes have been intensified by the acute individualism of the American, vigorous speculation in land and other commodities, a strongly utilitarian attitude toward the land and the treasures above and below it, and government policy and law. The landscape is also remarkable for its extensive transportation facilities, which have greatly influenced the configuration of the land.
How were townships laid out?
Townships were laid out as blocks, each six by six miles in size, oriented with the compass directions . Thirty-six sections, each one square mile, or 640 acres (260 hectares), in size, were designated within each township; and public roads were established along section lines and, where needed, along half-section lines. At irregular intervals, offsets in survey lines and roads were introduced to allow for the Earth’s curvature. Individual property lines were coincident with, or parallel to, survey lines, and this pervasive rectangularity generally carried over into the geometry of fields and fences or into the townsites later superimposed upon the basic rural survey.
How much land did farms have in the 1980s?
By the late 1980s, for example, when the average farm size had surpassed 460 acres, farms containing 2,000 or more acres accounted for almost half of all farmland and 20 percent of the cropland harvested, even though they comprised less than 3 percent of all farms.
What are the patterns of rural settlement?
Patterns of rural settlement indicate much about the history, economy, society, and minds of those who created them as well as about the land itself. The essential design of rural activity in the United States bears a strong family resemblance to that of other neo-European lands, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, or tsarist Siberia —places that have undergone rapid occupation and exploitation by immigrants intent upon short-term development and enrichment. In all such areas, under novel social and political conditions and with a relative abundance of territory and physical resources, ideas and institutions derived from a relatively stable medieval or early modern Europe have undergone major transformation. Further, these are nonpeasant countrysides, alike in having failed to achieve the intimate symbiosis of people and habitat, the humanized rural landscapes characteristic of many relatively dense, stable, earthbound communities in parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
How did pre-European settlements affect the United States?
Although the land that now constitutes the United States was occupied and much affected by diverse Indian cultures over many millennia, these pre-European settlement patterns have had virtually no impact upon the contemporary nation—except locally, as in parts of New Mexico. A benign habitat permitted a huge contiguous tract of settled land to materialize across nearly all the eastern half of the United States and within substantial patches of the West. The vastness of the land, the scarcity of labour, and the abundance of migratory opportunities in a land replete with raw physical resources contributed to exceptional human mobility and a quick succession of ephemeral forms of land use and settlement. Human endeavours have greatly transformed the landscape, but such efforts have been largely destructive. Most of the pre-European landscape in the United States was so swiftly and radically altered that it is difficult to conjecture intelligently about its earlier appearance.
What is benign habitat?
A benign habitat permitted a huge contiguous tract of settled land to materialize across nearly all the eastern half of the United States and within substantial patches of the West. The vastness of the land, the scarcity of labour, and the abundance of migratory opportunities in a land replete with raw physical resources contributed ...
What Is An ‘Urban’ place?
Characteristics of Urban Places
- Aside from the population, urban places also have common characteristics. Think of ‘urban’ and many people think of roads, buildings and infrastructure like electricity cables and sewage systems. Others will think of shops, offices and busy transport hubs.
Sources
- Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, 2018. Permanent Population (1978-2016). http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/English/MR/Population/201802/t20180201_392013.html Accessed 17 April 2018. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2012. Kenya Population and Housing Census. Analytical Report on Urbanization, Volume VIII, March 2012. https://www.knbs.or.ke/download/a…
Characteristics of Urban Places: Learning Activities
- Questions
1. Define ‘urban’. 2. Suggest why different countries have their own definitions for ‘urban’. 3. Create a large spider diagram showing characteristics of urban settlements. Ensure you have included the following terms: 3.1. Site 3.2. Situation 3.3. Function 3.4. Hamlet 3.5. Conurbation 3.6. Mega… - Other tasks
For a city you know well, or a city you are interested in, identify its main characteristics according to the main points on this page.