Geography 1.5 Settlements

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Settlements

A settlement is defined as a place in which people live and where they carry out a variety of activities such as residence, trade, agriculture and manufacturing.

Settlement Pattern

A settlement pattern refers to the way that buildings and houses are distributed in a settlement or the shape of the settlement. Settlement patterns are of interest to geographers, historians, and anthropologists for the insight they offer in how a community has developed over time.

A Dispersed Settlement Pattern -

The buildings are spread out with large open spaces separating them

Often found in upland areas

A scattered pattern of houses

Found mainly in the regions with grasslands, thick forests, poor agricultural lands, extreme climates, regions with extensive cultivation and hilly tracts

Found in highly productive land

Isolation of households not too bad as it provides the inhabitants with privacy

Lack of security

Minimal social interaction

A Nucleated Settlement Pattern -

A lot of buildings grouped together

Often found in lowland areas

Clustered settlement

Clustered around a central point called the 'nucleus'

Focal point depends on the location and culture. It may be a church, park or market

Population size in nucleated villages is large and in most cases, there is a high population density

Clustering