What is a settlement, and why is it built there?
A settlement is a place where people live. It can be a few houses or a huge city.
Site and situation
The site is the land a settlement is built on. The situation is where it is compared with things around it, such as roads, rivers and other towns.
Site factors
- Water: for drinking, farming and transport. Many old cities stand on rivers.
- Flat land: easy to build on and farm.
- Fertile soil: grows food.
- Safety: high ground above floods, or a hill that is easy to defend.
- Trade: a river crossing, a harbour or a meeting of roads.
- Resources: wood, stone, coal or minerals nearby.
Places that are very cold, very dry, very high or very steep usually have few people.
Shapes of settlement: nucleated, linear and dispersed
- Nucleated (clustered): houses packed around a centre such as a well, a market or a place of worship. Common where water is scarce or people needed safety.
- Linear: houses in a long line along a road, a railway, a river, a valley floor or a coast.
- Dispersed (scattered): single farms far apart. Common where each family needs a lot of land, such as large grain or cattle farms.
Population density and distribution
Distribution is where people are spread. Density is how many people live in one unit of area.
Population density = number of people ÷ area (km²)
Places with many people per km² are dense. Places with few are sparse. Most people on Earth live on coasts, river plains and in the mild middle latitudes.
Settlement and the environment: a two-way link
How nature affects settlement
- Relief (shape of land): mountains limit building.
- Climate: deserts and polar lands have few people.
- Natural processes: floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, sea-level rise and drought can damage or even move settlements.
How settlement affects nature
- Forests and wetlands are cleared for homes and farms.
- Rivers and air get polluted by waste, traffic and factories.
- Concrete covers good farmland and stops rainwater soaking in, so floods can get worse.
- Wild animals lose their homes.
Land use, trends and sustainable communities
Land use
Land use means what the land is used for: homes, shops, factories, transport, parks, farms. Land-use issues happen when uses compete, for example a new highway or housing estate on farmland or a wetland.
Settlement hierarchy
Hamlet → village → town → city → megacity (10 million or more). Bigger places have more services (hospitals, universities, airports).
Current trends
- Urbanisation: since about 2007 more than half the world lives in towns and cities.
- Urban sprawl: cities spread outward over farmland.
- Growth of megacities, mostly in Asia and Africa.
- Informal settlements (slums) where cities grow faster than housing.
A sustainable community
- Homes close together (compact) and mixed land use, so shops and schools are a walk away.
- Good public transport, cycle lanes and footpaths.
- Parks, trees and green roofs.
- Clean energy (solar, wind), rainwater harvesting, recycling and composting.
People and towns already act: car-pooling, rooftop solar, community gardens, plastic bans.
Investigating a settlement issue (inquiry and maps)
- Ask a question: "Should our town build on the farmland by the river?"
- Collect data from many sources: census tables, satellite images, news, interviews.
- Use maps: print and digital (GIS) maps, air photos.
- Analyse the evidence: who gains, who loses, what happens to the environment?
- Conclude and share using geography words (density, land use, sprawl, sustainable).
Choropleth maps
A choropleth map shades areas by a value, such as population density: darker shade = higher value. Always read the key. Compare rates (per km²), not just totals, because big areas hold more people.
Try it
Draw a sketch of your street or village. Mark homes, shops, water and roads. Is the pattern nucleated, linear or dispersed? Count the homes in 100 m and guess the density.
Key formulas and definitions
- Population density = number of people ÷ area (people per km²)
- Site = the land the settlement is built on; Situation = its position compared with surroundings
- Nucleated = clustered; Linear = in a line; Dispersed = scattered
- Hierarchy: hamlet → village → town → city → megacity (10 million+)
Worked examples
1. A district has 450,000 people and an area of 1,500 km². Find its population density.
Density = 450,000 ÷ 1,500 = 300 people per km².
2. Houses stand on both sides of a highway for 3 km, one house deep. Name the pattern and give one reason.
Linear. Every house gets direct access to the road for transport and trade.
3. Town A: 20,000 people on 10 km². Town B: 50,000 people on 100 km². Which is denser?
A: 20,000 ÷ 10 = 2,000 per km². B: 50,000 ÷ 100 = 500 per km². Town A is denser even though B has more people.
4. A city is planning a new suburb on wetland. Suggest two sustainable changes.
Build compact housing on already used land instead, and keep the wetland as a park that stores flood water. Add a bus or metro link so people need fewer cars.
Common mistakes
- Thinking a big population always means high density. Density depends on area too: divide people by km².
- Mixing up site (the land itself) with situation (position relative to surroundings).
- Calling every village 'nucleated'. Look at the shape: in a line is linear, far apart is dispersed.
- Reading a choropleth map without the key, or comparing totals instead of rates.