Chapter-13 : Settlements

What is settlement geography?

In settlement geography, we study those geographical areas which are settled by a human. The
following study included:
● Evolution of Human settlement
● Types and pattern of human settlement
● Morphology of human settlement
● Functions and problems of Human settlement
What is a human settlement?
Human settlements mean a cluster of dwellings [ size and types may vary] where the human being
lives. Hamlet, Villages, towns, cities, Megacities are examples of human settlement.
On the basis of size, human settlement varies from Hamlet to metropolitan cities. On the basis of
functionality and social structure, there are generally two types of settlements:
● Rural settlement

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● Urban settlements
Rural Settlement characteristics:
The following are main characteristics of rural settlement, however, this is not universal trues, it
varies from country to country;
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● Smaller in size.
● Dwelling is sparsely spaced.
● Dwellers are involved in primary activities.
● Rural dweller provides foods and raw materials to urban settlement.
● Dweller has rigid and static social relationships among themselves.
Urban settlement characteristics:
The following are characteristics of urban settlement;
● Larger in size.
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● Dwelling is closely spaced.

● Dweller is involved in secondary such as processing of raw materials and manufacturing of
finished goods and tertiary activities.
● The urban settlement has dynamic, complex, and formal social relationships.
● Cities act as nodes of economic growth.
● They provide goods and services for both urban and human settlement.
❖ Types of Rural settlements:
➢ Rural Settlement types are a measurement of social gregariousness as well as geo-climatic conditions
and land capability. The land capability is directly proportional to nucleation.
➢ Rural Settlement types reflect the spacing of houses or their arrangement in terms of geometrical
proximity over the rural landscape.
➢ Rural settlement type is understood by statistical analysis using the following two approaches:
■ Nearest neighbour approach
■ Coefficient of dispersal method
Nearest neighbour approach
Calculation of Index value

Rn is the index value which is derived from the formula

 Rn = 2d√(n/A)

Where,

Rn – Index value

d = distance between either houses or villages

n = number of houses or villages

a = total Area of the given landscape under consideration

a
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Coefficient of dispersal method

​ Calculation of settlement type through this method is given below

​ Above method signifies that greater the value of ‘C’ greater the dispersed settlement.
 Based on above analysis, there are three types of settlement
1. Nucleated/clustered
2. Semi nucleated/ semi clustered
3. Dispersed

​
​ Nucleated/clustered rural type

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○ These are concentrated, fused, and compact type settlements.
○ The rural houses or villages over the landscape have a high degree of nucleation. Here ‘Rn’ is less
than 1.
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○ The nucleated settlements have closely packed structures with little or no gap in between.
○ Determinants of nucleation
■ Site factors: The settlement near water bodies, fertile tracts will be high in comparison to other
areas.
■ High land capability: In order to utilize the potential of land, the settlement over the land with
high capability would be nucleated with high population density.
■ Hydrology:
● Wet point settlements: The settlement around well, ponds, lakes, etc. would be nucleated
for utilization of water resources.
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● Drypoint settlement: Settlement around water bodies (Oasis) in dry or desert areas will be
nucleated.
■ Defense: Nucleated settlements provide a defense to the community living in close proximity
and surrounded by a common boundary in order to protect them from the common enemy (e.g.
tribal community make fences around their settlement to protect them from wild animals)
■ Historical continuity: The settlement of a place becomes nucleated due to an increase in the
population of that place over time. The continued increase in population leads to the high
degree of nucleation.
■ Customs, beliefs, religious traits, caste: People of the same caste, following the same customs
and traditions prefer to live at the same place which leads to the formation of nucleated
settlements.
■ Homogeneous ethnicity: The people with common ethnicity prefer to live at commonplace
leading to nucleated settlement. Example China Town in Kolkata.
○ Determinants of nucleation
■ Nucleated settlements are widely found in productive alluvial plains.
● The need for cooperation in agricultural activities like a tilting of land, borrowing of
agricultural implements, etc. brings the farmer communities together.
● This is further strengthened by socio-economic bonds formed due to class, kinship,
and other linkages. E.g. Indo-Gangetic plains, Nile valley, Huwang Ho valley, etc.
 ○ Hunting and fishing communities:
■ Hunting and fishing require collective effort in making, marinating, and handling
fishing boats.
■ It requires cooperation, management and thus compactness is needed.
■ It is observed among American Red Indians, along Brahmaputra, Hooghly river
valleys.
○ Security:
■ The need to defend against wild animals, common enemies leads to the formation of
compact or nucleated settlements. Example: Forests and valleys of Shiwalik, western
and eastern India, Rajasthan, Punjab, Bundelkhand, etc.
■ Compact settlements are found on hilltops and ridges in Nagaland for protection
against invasion of head hunters.
○ Scarcity of resource:
■ When the resources of an area are poor and scanty, the compactness of a settlement
enables the maximum utilization of resources.
■ For example, people in arid region settle around the area with water resources such

a
as Oasis (in Sahara, Rajasthan)
○ Distribution of nucleated settlement in India:
■ practice of intensive agriculture leads to the emergence of compact settlements. For example,
Purvas and Majras in the Ganga plains
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■ newly irrigated areas of Ferozpur in Punjab and Ganganagar in Rajasthan
■ High degree of segregation on the caste line can be found in rural areas with compact
settlement types.
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Semi-compact/Semi nucleated settlements

● In rural areas with poor land capability
● Here, ‘Rn’ is between 1.5 to 2.5
● The hydrology of the area with a dispersed settlement type is poor.
● transitional phase in the growth of the compact settlement.
● With increasing population and adoption of new technologies, the scattered settlements starts taking
the shape of semi-compact settlements.
● Examples of semi-compact settlements are
○ East of Aravallis in Rajasthan
○ Hilly tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram,
Tripura, the valley of Brahmaputra.
 ○ Malwa plateau
○ Bundelkhand plateau
○ Drier parts of Deccan plateau.

Dispersed or scattered settlements

● Villages having dispersed or scattered settlements have farmstead scattered over a much wider area.
It reflects poor hydrology and land capability.
● ‘Rn’ for this type of settlement is greater than 2.5.
● Number of houses per unit area in these types of settlements is very low and there is a wide gap
between the houses.
● Such Rural Settlements are the characteristics of deserts/semi-arid land with poor land capability or
regions affected by natural hazards.
● Such villages are common in:
○ Areas of extreme climate
○ Hilly tracts

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○ Deserts
○ Thick forests
○ Grasslands
○ Areas of extensive agriculture.
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○ Poor agriculture land
○ Areas where it is essential for farmers to live on agricultural land rather than distant
village settlement
● Steppe grasslands on the east of the Urals in Uzbekistan, Russia came into being during the late 19th
century. Similarly, dispersed settlements are found in extensive agricultural regions of Prairies (US,
Canada), Pampas of Argentina, Downs of Australia, etc.
● Semi-desert regions of Rajasthan, forest lands of North East India, Shiwaliks, Jammu, and Kashmir,
and parts of Peninsular India also have dispersed types of settlements.
● Dispersed type of settlements is also found in underpopulated areas of northern Canada, Central
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Australia, Scandinavian countries and the Western USA.

● The Western Ghats in the rain shadow area, Leh-Ladhak, Kutchh, and Western Rajasthan has
dispersed settlement types.

❖ Rural settlement forms

● Farmstead
○ It includes a cluster of 2 to 3 houses.
○ The regions having farmstead are the regions of extensive agriculture.
○ Examples- Temperate grassland, Prairies, Downs.
● Hamlet
○ It includes cluster of 7 to 9 houses
○ It signifies poor land capability, low population density.
○ It is found in Rajasthan, UK, Scotland
● Village
○ It includes a cluster of more than 10 houses.
❖ Pattern of Rural Settlement:
➢ Pattern refers to the geometrical configuration or the external morphology of a rural settlement.
➢ It refers to the geometrical shape or arrangement of rural houses/settlements in an area.
➢ It reflects the layout plan as well as the geometrical shape of agricultural lands and the pattern of
transportation lines.

➢ Nucleated settlements pattern

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■ Rectangular pattern
● have a high degree of nucleation.
● More than 50% of the world population lives in such settlements
● found where the land capability is high
● have a high degree of clustering and high population density.
● The shape of the cultivated land is rectangular.
● Examples (India)
◆ Most of North Indian villages have rectangular patterns dominated by caste groups.
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◆ Ganga-Yamuna-Doab, Eastern Uttar Pradesh villages, Western Bihar villages.

● Examples (Worldwide)
◆ Villages of southeast China
◆ Villages in Myanmar along rivers
◆ Regions with high population density like well-planned settlements of Germany,
Russia, China, Israel, France, etc. (these are the places with planned settlements)
● In the central part, the village headman or old Zamindar house with his own caste man
has greater nucleation while away from the center spacing between house increases.
■ Hollow rectangular
● If a village develops along a water body, a religious site, or an open community land in
the center, it is called a hollow rectangular
● Such villages are typical of wet point settlements.
◆ E.g. villages over Tamil Nadu Plateau, Deccan Plateau.

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■ Square pattern
● It is the modified form of a rectangular pattern.
● The degree of compactness in the square pattern of settlement is high.
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● The size of farmland are responsible for such villages.

■ Hollow square pattern

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● It is similar to square pattern settlement except for the fact that it consists of some water
body, pond, temple, etc. at the center of the settlement.
■ Linear settlement
● When houses are arranged along the bank of a river or coastline or transportation line,
the pattern of settlement formed will be linear.
● Examples of the linear settlement include
◆ Northern Malabar, Mopla Villages, fisherman villages along roads in
Ganga-Yamuna doab.
◆ Houses along NH-7
◆ Development of villages along Trans Siberian Railways, Canadian Pacific
Highway, Nile Valley, Indus River.
 a
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■ Triangular pattern (Arrow head pattern)
● When either two roads or two rivers are converging at a point, there will be a clustering
of houses either on the doab or between the transportation lines.
● Such villages have limited growth options and their growth is unidirectional.
● Examples:
◆ Delta of Egypt and Nigeria
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◆ North Bihar, villages, Northern Assam, settlements along NH-7 in MP where
Block/district roads are meeting highways.

■ Radial pattern
● When transportation lines are emerging from a point like over a dome-shaped plateau,
the radial pattern develops and the houses cluster around the roads connecting the top of
the plateau.
● Examples:
 ◆ Villages in Marathwada
◆ Ridges of Deccan plateau
◆ Settlements near Haridwar
◆ Ozark plateau in the USA

■ Star shaped settlement

● When space between radial roads gets filled, it gives rise to star shaped settlement.

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● Examples:
◆ NH-47 in Tamil Nadu
◆ Villages in coastal Orissa
◆ Alabama mining state of USA
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■ Spider web settlement

● When the interconnecting roads between the radial roads attract new houses, then it
gives rise to Spider web settlement pattern.

■ Circular pattern
 ● It is a variant of a rectangular pattern.
● Social security and defense play an important role in the development of the circular
pattern of settlement beside land capability and hydrology.
● Fisherman and salt producer’s community settle along sea coasts and salt lakes
developing a circular pattern of settlement
● Examples:
◆ Rohilkhand, Ganga-Yamuna Doab
◆ Masai Tribes of Tanzania, Kraal

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■ Hollow circular Pattern
● When the circular pattern of settlement is developed around a central water body it is
called as Hollow circular pattern of settlement.
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■ Herring Bone pattern

● When one or major transportation line is crossed by several state highways or
district roads at a 90-degree angle, then it gives rise to the Herring Bone pattern
of settlement.
● Examples:
◆ NH-47 in Tamil Nadu (between SalemTrivandrum)
◆ NH-47 between Bhopal and Bangalore
◆ Very common in the Eurasian part of the Trans Siberian Railway
◆ Canadian and Australian villages.
 ■ Nebular Pattern
● This type of settlement pattern develops when transportation lines appear like a Nebula
of circular ring emerging from centre.
● Such patterns are common in south German villages located over highlands.
● It is uncommon in India but can be found in the Shillong plateau where the expansion of
larger villages have the nebular pattern.

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■ Polygonal pattern
● It is the variant of a rectangular pattern of settlement
● Rectangular settlements in their transitional stage of growth can be either polygonal or
amorphous.
● Example: North Gangetic plain
■ Amorphous pattern of settlement
● These types of settlements do not have definite shapes.
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● Most of them are semi clustered villages that are dispensing out because of centrifugal
forces.
■ Cruciform settlement pattern
● This type of settlement is found in many European villages due to higher development
of transportation routes. The villages are settled in planned way.
● Examples
◆ Settlements along NH-7 in South India
◆ South of Bangalore district roads across NH-7
➢ Semi-nucleated settlements pattern
■ Checker board type of settlement
● When semi nucleated eventually becomes nucleated, the transition phase gives rise to
the checkerboard type of settlement.
● In this type of settlement, the transport networks are developed so that they form a grid
over the landscape.
● There are junction points at the transportation link crossings where the settlements are
developed.
 a
■ Perforated settlements
● When the houses in semi nucleated settlements are widely dispersed because of the
existence of salt crust as in Marshy lands over Bengal delta, then it gives rise to
perforated settlements
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● Examples:
◆ Bangladeshi villages which are affected by the cyclone, floods, and waterlogging.
◆ Villages in Northern Sahara where sand dunes are located between hamlets.
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■ Hill top settlements

● These type of settlements are found in Naga villages for the purpose of defense
● Houses are along the edge of top so that the tribes can keep vigil over the movement of
enemy tribes.
 ■ Horse shoe pattern/ semi circular pattern
● It develops along the foothills of mountains and spurs, crescent, or along the banks of
the large rivers.
● Examples:
◆ Villages near Haridwar, Shiwalik, and Bhabhar region.
◆ Tribal villages of Arunachal Pradesh.

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The rural types and patterns are not static. With the changes in occupation, types of agriculture, cultural
amalgamation, technological changes, and diffusion of innovation, types, and patterns witness the
morphological and geometrical transformation and changing paradigm of society and socio-economic
way of life are transcripted into the new pattern.

❖ Morphology of Rural Settlement:

➢ Morphology refers to the internal structure or the constructional plan of a village which includes the
layout of streets and roads, arrangement of houses, pattern of housing, geometrical size and shape of
village and agricultural fields, location of either the water body, religious site, or the house of the
village headman.
➢ Rural Morphology includes
■ Physical Morphology
■ Social Morphology
➢ Physical Morphology

Physical Morphology includes the study of the relationship between the following:
■ Road to lane relationship: It includes how roads are connected to lanes.
■ Lane to lane relationship:
 ◆ It is description of geometrical arrangement of lanes. How they are connected to each
other and ending at what points.
◆ In Indian villages, lanes are extremely narrow meandering and ending abruptly. This
shows unplanned character of Indian villages.
◆ In UK, cruciform villages have all the lanes cutting across 90 degree, because they are
planned villages.
■ Lane to house relationship:
◆ Geometry of lanes determines the arrangement of houses because houses grow along
lanes.
◆ In India, lanes are largely unplanned and arrangement of houses determines the lane type.
■ House to house relationship:
◆ Physical morphology is also determined by the spacing between the houses.
◆ In clustered villages, houses are unevenly spaced or they have wall to wall arrangement.
◆ Houses are hardly according to geometrical plan and their average height is variable.
◆ There is clustering of houses based on social structure/cast system.
◆ Role of geometrical shape of the agriculture field also determines the village pattern.

a
◆ House type can range from ‘Pucca’ to ‘Kutcha’ and in older parts of villages, ventilation
is closed to the roof (depends on whether village is developed or not).
➢ Social Morphology
■ It refers to the social structure of a village which is based on cast, or class.
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■ In Indian villages, caste hierarchy is reflected in the morphology of villages.
■ Social factors like division of work, untouchability (not so prominent now), social prohibition
over the work of women and lower casts had all led to a distinct social morphology of Rural
Settlements from urban ones.
■ The following factors affect the following morphological character of villages:
● Arrangement of buildings
● Pattern of streets and fields
● Functional characteristics of settlement.
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◆ For example, the houses of higher cast people like Brahmins and Rajputs would be
large and people from the lower cast would have huts, kutcha houses with cattle.
■ K. N. Singh in his religious ritual and secular dominance model highlighted the importance of
two concepts:
● Development of twin settlement which included:
◆ Caste Hindus
◆ Outcasts
● The segregation was much pronounced during the past favouring the outgrowth of the
helmeted structure of villages, In the case of compact settlements out-castes generally lived
on the outer parts of the built-up area in a direction (south, south-east, and north, etc.) less
conducive for wind movement, for even air gets polluted after coming in contact with a
Shudra‘s body.
● How and why these traditions came into being is a matter of debate amongst scholars, but
the author believes these untouchables to be the remnant of the pre-Aryan tribes who were
always despised by the Aryans and later Rajput settlers.
● Secular dominance model: Under this model, all caste and religion came together as
functional units under the old Jajmani system. For example, landowners required the
services of landless people for the cultivation of fields.
■ Thus, the socio-cultural traits of rural settlement is also a field of study in the settlement system
 a
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■ Doxiadis classification of Rural Morphology
● Earliest attempt to classify Rural Morphology was done by Doxiadis.
● He classified rural morphology into four sectors:
◆ Homogenous sector or Village core:
➢ It consists of the central part of the village.
➢ It has a religious site, water body or Zamindar/ Village headman’s house, or
community land.
➢ It is surrounded by the own caste man of village Zamindar.
➢ It is the most densely populated region and congested part of the village
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reflecting patriarchal society and security concerns.

◆ Transitional zone
➢ This part is occupied by the village servicemen e.g. Goldsmith, Blacksmith,
Milkman, weavers, etc.
➢ This zone is attached with the core of the village where middle caste people are
mixed with poor upper caste people.
➢ This zone is also known as the Artisans zone.
◆ Circulatory part:
➢ It is the outer periphery of the village where new houses and settlers have been
migrated or settled outward due to congestion of the core.
➢ Thus, this zone has mixed land use in terms of social structure.
◆ Special part:
➢ It was occupied by landless labours outside the village close to farmlands
because of work opportunities on-field and social segregation.
➢ They are usually the people from the lower castes.
❖ Urban Developments:
➢ The following are characteristics of urban settlement;
■ Larger in size.
■ Dwelling is closely spaced.
■ Dweller is involved in secondary such as processing of raw materials and manufacturing
of finished goods and tertiary activities.
■ The urban settlement has dynamic, complex, and formal social relationships.

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■ Cities act as nodes of economic growth.
■ They provide goods and services for both urban and human settlement.
➢ India has been among the fastest growing economies in the world for close to two decades, and
aspires to be among the top three largest economies in the world by 2047 — the 100th year of its
Independence.
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➢ In this economic development of India, its cities have a major role to play. Cities are India’s
economic powerhouses and a magnet for a large rural population seeking a better life. In the recent
few years, a number of schemes have been launched specifically for the development of cities and
the urban dwellers.
➢ Urban Development in India
■ Pace of Urbanisation: In 2019, the National Commission on Population estimated that India’s
population is expected to increase from 1,211 million to 1,518 million during 2011-2036. Urban
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growth is expected to contribute to over 73% of the rise in the population.

● The United Nations has projected that, by 2050, India will be 50% urbanised.
■ Contribution of Urban India in Economy: Cities constitute only about 3% of the country’s land,
but contribute to over 70% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicating a high level of
economic productivity that they offer.
■ Government Initiatives for Urban Development: The government has begun various initiatives to
provide basic amenities to every household and also enable technology to solve urban issues.
➢ Schemes/Programmes Related to Urban Development:
■ Smart Cities
● It is an innovative initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,
Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people
by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart
outcomes for citizens.
● Objective: To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of
life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart
Solutions.
● Focus: On sustainable and inclusive development and to look at compact areas, create a
replicable model which will act like a lighthouse to other aspiring cities.
● Strategy:
 ◆ Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide.
◆ Develop areas step-by-step with the help of these three models:
➢ Retrofitting.
➢ Redevelopment.
➢ Greenfield.
● Coverage and Duration: The Mission covers 100 cities for the duration of five years
starting from the financial year (FY) 2015-16 to 2019-20.
● Financing: It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
■ AMRUT Mission
◆ Launch: June 2015
◆ Concerned Ministry: Housing and Urban Affairs
◆ Purpose:

➢ To ensure that every household has access to a tap with the assured supply of water
and a sewerage connection.
➢ The Priority zone of the Mission is water supply followed by sewerage.

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➢ To increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained
open spaces (e.g. parks).
➢ To reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for
non-motorized transport (e.g. walking and cycling).
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◆ Components:

➢ Capacity building, reform implementation, water supply, sewerage and septage

management, storm water drainage, urban transport and development of green spaces
and parks.
➢ The reforms aim at improving delivery of citizen services, bringing down the cost of
delivery, improving financial health, augmenting resources and enhancing
transparency. It also includes replacement of street lights with LED lights.
◆ Central Sponsored Scheme: Total outlay for AMRUT was Rs. 50,000 crores for five years
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from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20.

➢ Unable to meet set targets for urban renewal in 500 cities, the Centre has extended the
mission period of AMRUT upto 31st March, 2021.
◆ State Annual Action Plan (SAAP):

➢ AMRUT has made states equal partners in planning and implementation of projects by
approval of SAAP once a year by MoHUA and states have to give project sanctions
and approval at their end, therefore actualisation of cooperative federalism.
◆ Supervision: An Apex Committee (AC), chaired by the Secretary, MoHUA and comprising
representatives of related Ministries and organisations supervises the Mission.
● Status of AMRUT Mission in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh:

◆ Himachal Pradesh is ranked 15th and Uttarakhand 24th in AMRUT’s National rankings
(performance-based).

➢ Odisha topped the rankings.

 ◆ Both the States have implemented the Online Building Permission System (OBPS) in their
Mission cities.

➢ OBPS is a part of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and should be implemented in all the
Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) apart from Mission cities.
◆ The Credit Rating work has been completed in all Mission cities in the two States.

➢ Credit rating is an assessment of an ULB’s ability to pay its financial obligations.

◆ Both the States were informed that the Ministry has developed a common Dashboard for all
the Missions (e.g. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban, Smart Cities Mission) of the
Ministry where information relating to all States/UT and cities would be available. The
States/UT may use this facility for monitoring the progress.

➢ States were requested to update the details of Missions regularly so that the progress
would be updated in the portal/dashboard. This data is used for monitoring, reviewing
and assessment of monthly rankings on the progress among the states.

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■ Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban
● Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched various initiatives to make
SBM-U a successful project. Some of them include,
● ODF, ODF+ and ODF++ Protocol:
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➢ Norms under ODF: No visible faeces shall found in the environment and every
household, as well as public/community institutions, should be using safe technology
option for disposal of faeces.
➢ Norms under ODF+: Not a single person should be defecating and/or urinating in
open. All community and public toilets should be properly maintained and cleaned.
➢ Norms under ODF++: Proper treatment and management of faecal sludge/septage
and sewage is safely managed and treated. There should be no discharge or dumping
of untreated faecal sludge/septage and sewage in drains, water bodies or open areas.
● Water + Protocol: It is designed to ensure that no untreated wastewater is discharged into the
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open environment or water bodies.

● Star rating protocol for Garbage free cities: It is based on 12 parameters which follow a
SMART framework – Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification
mechanism and Targeted towards outcomes.
➢ As on date, 4 cities namely, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Ambikapur (Chattisgarh),
Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Mysuru (Karnataka) have been certified as 5-star
cities.
● Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs): MoHUA has also partnered with National Highways
Authority of India(NHAI) to use the plastic waste for road construction.
➢ Additionally, cities have been asked to set up adequate Material Recovery
Facilities (MRFs) to handle the segregation, processing and recycle of plastic
waste.
● Swachh Surevkshan: MoHUA launched the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020) league, a
quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns in India.
■ HRIDAY
● Preserve and revitalize the soul of the heritage city to reflect the city’s unique character by
encouraging an aesthetically appealing, accessible, informative & secured environment. To
undertake strategic and planned development of heritage cities aiming at the improvement in
 overall quality of life with a specific focus on sanitation, security, tourism, heritage
revitalization and livelihoods retaining the city’s cultural identity.
● Objectives of HRIDAY
The official HRIDAY Scheme statement sets out the following quantifiable goals for urban
development in heritage cities:
◆ Planning, developing and implementing infrastructure keeping in mind sensitivities of
heritage, including service delivery and development of infrastructure in core areas of
historic cities.
◆ Preserve and renovate heritage so that tourists can connect with each heritage city’s
unique nature.
◆ Develop a heritage asset inventory of cities documenting built, cultural, living and
natural heritage as a basis for urban planning, growth, planning of services and their
delivery.
◆ Enhancement of basic services focussing on sanitation like public toilets, water taps,
security like street lights and in improving tourist facilities.
◆ Create linkages between cultural facilities and tourism along with the conservation of

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heritage and capacity building of local industries based on heritage.
◆ Adaptive maintenance of urban heritage, including rehabilitation using appropriate
technology for retrofitting historic buildings with modern conveniences. Establishment
of public-private partnership for preserving and maintaining historic buildings is also
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part of this goal.
◆ Promotion of economic activities to enhance avenues of employment among people
living in and around the heritage sites. This includes skill development among them and
making public and cultural spaces accessible.
◆ Making cities informative using modern ICT tools and making cities secure using
modern security devices like CCTV etc.
◆ Increase access to heritage sites by developing roads, adopting the universal design, GIS
mapping of historical locations and building a digital record of the heritage etc.
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● Below are the cities that are listed under the HRIDAY Scheme:
❖ Ajmer ❖ Varanasi
❖ Amravati ❖ Velankanni
❖ Badami ❖ Warangal
❖ Gaya ❖ Dwarka
❖ Mathura ❖ Kanchipuram
❖ Puri ❖ Amritsar
■ Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban
● Launch: 25th June 2015, intends to provide housing for all in urban areas by year 2022.
● Implemented by: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
● Features:
◆ Addresses Urban housing shortage among the Urban Poor including the Slum
Dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to eligible urban poor.
◆ The Mission covers the entire urban area consisting of Statutory Towns, Notified
Planning Areas, Development Authorities, Special Area Development Authorities,
Industrial Development Authorities or any such authority under State legislation which
is entrusted with the functions of urban planning & regulations.
◆ All houses under PMAY(U) have basic amenities like toilet, water supply, electricity
and kitchen.
 ◆ The Mission promotes women empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in
the name of female members or in joint name.
◆ Preference is also given to differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs,
Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the
society.
● Divided into Four Verticals:
◆ In-situ Rehabilitation of existing slum dwellers using land as a resource through
private participation.
◆ Credit Linked Subsidy.
◆ Affordable Housing in Partnership.
◆ Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancement.
Challenges to Development of Cities

● City-Centric Issues: Several city-centric issues such as air pollution, urban flooding,
and droughts exist as obstacles in holistic development of urban India all of which
point to infrastructural shortcomings and inadequate planning.

a
○ Land-use decisions are often made without an adequate empirical
assessment of the consequences which disrupt the local ecology, and in turn,
the economy.
● Erroneous Classification of Urban Areas: A foundational challenge is the way of
nh
defining what is “urban” and what is “rural” in India.
○ Out of 7,933 towns that are counted as urban, almost half have the status of
Census towns and continue to be governed as rural entities which adds to
the vulnerability of unplanned urbanisation.
● Unplanned Development of Statutory Towns: Even those urban settlements that have
the status of “statutory towns” do not necessarily grow in a planned manner. About 52%
of statutory towns in India lack any kind of master plan.
○ Most of the focus of planned development leans towards metropolitan
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cities (Class 1 towns).
○ The small and medium sized towns (Class 2, 3 and 4 towns), which together
house 26% of the total population and need at least equal, if not more,
attention remain untapped.
● Issues Faced by Urban Local Bodies: The ULBs do not have a thorough know-how of
the value of their assets.
○ A pervasive issue is the lack of adequate capacity of ULBs in taking
innovative measures to overcome their financial limitations.
○ They also fall short in collecting sufficient property taxes in terms of rates
and coverage.
● Issues of Urban Transport: India’s ratio of buses to population is a low 1.2 per 1,000
people, compared to 8.6 in Thailand and 6.5 in South Africa.
○ State governments, which retain effective control over urban development
have failed to operationalise the umbrella authorities to regulate
transport.
○ The existing paradigm makes metro and bus services expensive for the
majority, particularly those forced to live in the suburbs due to housing costs.
 Way Forward

● Integration for Inclusive Urban Development: Enhanced ambition requires the Central
government to work with State governments to integrate key areas with its transport
vision, such as affordable inner-city housing, including rental projects, access to civic
services and health care, and enhanced sustainability, greenery and walkability.
○ All these are covered by Central budgetary schemes for cities. Only
integration can bring about inclusive urbanisation.
● Rethinking the Approach for City Development: For India to accomplish its
Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda, the
government has to revisit, rethink, and reshape the way it plans and manages the country’s
settlements and the connecting networks among them.
○ Cities need to be viewed as markets, places of several cultures and
generators of employment opportunities and the natural environments
within and surrounding them need to be protected too.
● Overcoming Planning and Infrastructural Shortcomings: There is a need to build

a
capacities in the country so that cities reap the fruit of urbanisation and generate the
economic momentum needed to build a $5-trillion economy.
○ In this spirit, many cycles must be broken and plugged with reforms in urban
planning, management, and finance.
nh○ Also, these structures should be built on the back of cost-efficient public
transport infrastructure that ensures last-mile connectivity.
● Role of Startups and Technology: Domestic private sector companies that are well
aware of the organic growth and culture of urban India need to be nourished and built to
generate solutions for India from Indian minds.
○ Startups need to be mentored and encouraged to cautiously bridge the gap
between innovations and urban concerns.
○ Technology needs to be made a mainstay in urban planning education to
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ensure integrated planning.
● Involvement of Citizenry: Citizens must be made stakeholders in city-making through
awareness programmes about urban planning processes being made available to them
and their elected leaders.
○ City leadership must also be enlightened and aware of how to make cities
both liveable and inclusive.
● Role of State Governments: State governments must develop a “state urbanisation
strategy” which should stitch together the imperatives of all sectoral policies from
industry and tourism to agriculture and the environment.
○ Unless this integration happens, coherence between spatial and economic
policy will remain unconquered.
❖ Morphology Of Indian Cities:
➢ Morphology of Indian cities means the internal layout of Indian cities. The internal structure of
Indian cities varies and it depends on the development phases and history of the evolution of the
particular city. For example,
➢ Ancient cities such as Varanasi is characterized by temples, ghats, arts, music center, traditional art
center, etc,
➢ Cities of Mughal time are characterized by fort, wall, the mosque in internal structure.
➢ Cities of Britisher time;
 ○ Government building
○ Cantonment
○ Civil line
○ Railways station
○ Railway colonies
➢ Modern cities:
● Airport. school, college, hospital, etc are additional features.
We can get many knowledge or information through a morphological study of cities such as:
● History such as war, attack
● Past political system
● Past Social and cultural status
● The religious importance of types of religious
➢ The following are the characteristics of Indian cities;
● Mix pattern of residential and commercial activities
● Unplanned development
● Population density decrease from the center to the periphery

a
● Old fortification lin
Significant works have been done by geographers like Garrison, Kusum Lata, Jhon E Bush, and
Prof. Ashok Dutta on the morphology of Indian cities.
Garrison (American) work:
nh
● It is known as “Fused growth theory on Urban Morphology”. It has emerged as model work
for the study of modern metro cities of South Asia in particular. E.g. Jakarta. According to
him there are three important trends:
○ Up to 1990 there has been concentric growth of towns.
○ From 1900 to 1950, there has been sectoral growth because of growth of
transportation.
○ After 1950, there is multi-nuclei growth.
● The case study of Varanasi and Calcutta is in agreement with the Garrison’s model.
ka
○ Garrison’s model has been criticised for being a model of large sized towns and not
for all towns.
Mrs Kusum Lata’s work:
● She has divided Indian towns morphology into
○ Planned Towns: Chandigarh, Gandhinagar are the examples of planned towns. They
are based on rectangular or grid pattern of settlements and roads.
○ Unplanned towns: They dominate the scene of urban area and are characterised by
haphazard growth due to following factors:
■ Histro-genetic characteristics
■ Many Indian towns are village turned towns
■ Phenomenal rural urban migration
■ In west, built up area emerges after the establishment of infrastructure. In India
the scene is just reverse.
■ Increases internal functions and slum settlements
■ Tendency of Indian people to live near CBD
○ Planned cum unplanned towns:
■ It involves two sets of urban morphology within a defined municipal area.
 ■ Planned areas generally have colonial history whereas unplanned areas are the
older towns in the city. For example Connaught Place (planned) and Red Fort
area (unplanned) in Delhi.
■ It is the characteristics of all colonial cities.
Professor Ashok Dutta’s Work on Morphology of Indian cities:
● The study of Professor Ashok Dutta was based on two aspects: Nature of CBD and
Residential Segregation.
○ Indian CBD is different from Western CBDs. Only 4 CBDs- Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata
and Chennai have similar CBDs, where, in day time there is high activity while at
night they are deserted.
○ In most other Indian towns CBD is not an exclusive market zone rather it is also
characterised by high population density.
○ There is tendency of Indian society to live in CBD.
○ E.g. Delhi is the case study of Medieval and quasi planned town. There are 2
nucleione is pre-industrial nucleus (Chandani Chowk) and other is modern nucleus
(modern nucleus).

a
○ Multiple nuclei model can be applied in Delhi. Delhi has lately seen the emergence of
further new CBDs e.g. South Extension (VII), Heavy manufacturing (VI) – Okhla,
Nangoli, and Residential Suburbs (VIII) – Sonipat, TDICD, DLF City, etc.
nh
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➢ Internal structure of Indian cities

● Internal structure can be understood by classificatory approach because Indian cities not only
have various level of development but also history of origin.
● Structure of Indian cities based on history of origin:
○ Ancient Cities – Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Gaya etc.
○ Medieval Cities – Delhi, Agra, Ahmadabad, Allahabad, Shahjanabad, etc.
○ Modern Cities – Noida, Chandigarh, Vishakhapatnam (these cities have been
developed on the lines of British administrative requirements and have places such as
Ghanta Ghar, Civil Lines, Cantonment)
● Structure of Indian cities based on level of development
○ Unplanned City – Patna, Banaras
○ Quasi-Planned – Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bangalore
○ Planned – Chandigarh, Noida, Jaipur.
 ➢ Colonial principles of planning
● Spider web pattern: Delhi and Canberra are the examples of this form of planning. The
settlements are developed in concentric forms.
● Rectangular pattern: This type of pattern is found in industrial towns such as Tata Nagar,
Chennai, Kolkata, etc. The planned part of these cities has rectangular pattern.
● Radial Pattern: Mumbai is the example of this type of planning where city has developed
along the coast in radial pattern.
● Semi circular pattern: This type of planning can be seen in West Patna, Kochi, and Meerut
etc.
● Organic Morphology: Here the topography of site becomes important in the development of
roads in hill towns and plateau towns. E.g. Melbourne, Hill stations, etc.

● Describe the salient characteristics of the morphology of Indian cities. ( 2000)

● Explain the morphology of Indian cities in the background of existing morphological
models. (2006)
❖ Functional Classifiication Of Indian cities:

a
➢ Urban centres are classified by multitude of functions. They are the economic magnets where
secondary, tertiary and related activities dominate.
➢ The functional classification of towns gives the idea about the role of the town in the field of
occupation, industrial type, economic, religion, social, political, etc. It is hard to define the functional
nh
role of a town because all the towns have more than one function.
➢ On basis of predominant function and specialisation classification is done. Degree of specialisation can
be determined by number of workers engaged in that activity out of total population.
an attempt has been made to put forward various classifications adopted by scholars all over the
world on the basis of the function of an urban place.
A. Aurousseau’s Attempt
● In 1921, M. Aurousseau classified towns into six classes with twenty-eight subtypes. The six
classes were
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1. administrative,
2. defense,
3. culture,
4. production-towns,
5. communication, and
6. recreation.
● This list is quite comprehensive and has sometimes been found useful. His classification
though a simple one, however, suffers from the defect of over-generalization. Moreover, some
of the classes are specific to a particular country at a particular time only.
● To classify a town into one major category the cut-off point of one class has been decided by
the arbitrary percentage, and therefore it is subjective.
● Economic activities too are neglected. These are important in the sense that a town also caters
to the need of people residing outside its municipal limits. Various classes of functions as
suggested by Aurousseau create confusion in the sense that both functional and locational
characteristics are mixed; for example, under the communication-class group of towns
performing the function of ‘transfer of goods’ are put. Towns with tidal-limit, fall-line towns,
bridgehead towns point out attributes of location in the performance of their function.
 ● It is thus doubtful that such towns are exclusively communicational, and not locational.
Similarly, pilgrimage centers are cultural towns, but these equally are significant in their
geographical location on mountainous terrain, in valleys, or on banks of rivers.
● In spite of all these critics, Aurousseau’s classification marks a significant stage and provides
a springboard for sophisticated methods. It is actually a comprehensive scheme bringing
together polygonal functional urban activities to classify urban centers.
B. Harris’s Classification
● Chauncy D. Harris remedied the deficiencies of the former subjective and judgment-based
classifications.
● In his paper ‘A Functional Classification of Cities in the United States (1943)’, he was able to
identify quantitatively dominant function out of multifunctional character of cities. He
devised a scale of reference from his study of 984 towns (population more than 10,000) in the
United States based on the data provided by the 1930 Census.
● He used two sets of information – i) employment and ii) occupational figures reduced to
percentages to indicate cut-off points for urban activities varying in importance.
● He identified nine principal categories of towns –

a
1. manufacturing (M),
2. retailing (R),
3. diversified (D),
4. wholesaling (W),
nh
5. transportation (T),
6. mining (S),
7. educational (E),
8. resort or retirement (X)
9. and others (P).
● Harris’s classification suffers from some defects and is not universally viable. He used
metropolitan districts as functional units because the industry-group data such as those
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published now were not available during that time. Consequently, the number of cities which
were too small to have metropolitan districts were left unclassified.
● Carter (1975) labeled Harris’s classification as subjective because the decisions to access or
delete with a minimum number or cut-off points seem to be a personal one and were set by
simple empirical means.
● Under the class of ‘Transport and Communications’, workers engaged in telephone and
telegraph services were omitted, which was nothing more than a subjective decision
C. Howard Nelson’s Classification
● Nelson through his classification removed the shortcomings of the earlier classifications by
using a stated procedure that could be objectively checked by other workers.
● His paper ‘A Service Classification of American Cities’ was published in the journal
‘Geography’ in 1955. He decided to base his method of classification entirely upon major
industry groups as listed in the 1950 Census of Population for standard metropolitan areas,
urbanized areas, and urban places of 10,000 or more population.
● He omitted the little significance groups like agriculture and construction, and finally, arrived
at the nine activity groups
○ manufacturing;
○ mining
○ retail;
 ○ wholesale;
○ personal service;
○ professional services;
○ public administration;
○ transport and communication;
○ finance, insurance, real estate.
● The problem of city specialization, and also the degree of specialization above the average
was solved by giving margins of the different degrees to different size classes.
● He did find a definite tendency for the percentages employed in some activities to vary with
city size. The question – ‘When is a city specialized?’ was solved by using a statistical
technique – the Standard Deviation (SD). [S.D=√d²/N]
● With the help of the above formula, the index value is derived and the lowest deviation from
theoretical value projects the city character on the basis of economic functions.
● Percentage of workers in all functions were calculated for each town and then the statistical
mean of each function was calculated and towns having percentage above mean functions
were taken as specialized towns in that function.

a
● Thereafter, towns having below the mean were eliminated and the remaining towns were
hierarchically arranged on the basis of standard deviation.
● Nelson has not only functionally classified the cities but also taken the functional hierarchy
nh
for each function.
● According to Nelson, the city can be specialized in more than one activity and to varying
degrees.
● Criticism
○ Nelson was criticized by some British Urban geographers especially Moser and Scott
who said that this scheme of classification is applicable only for a particular point of
time. After few years, there may be a change in occupation statistics. But, a simple
change in occupational statistics can’t change the genetic factors of the town.
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➢ Functional Classification Of Indian Cities:
In India, the problem of classifying urban centers is not an easy task. This is because of several
reasons.
● First, the number of towns in India is too large to handle on some viable grounds. The size of
towns has a wide span ranging between 5,000 to 10 million.
● Secondly, the towns of India have a long historical background and have been under various
regimes dating back thousand years from the birth of Christ to the present era of democratic
set-up.
● And finally, the data about the functions and economy of Indian cities have not yet been
standardized because of the absence of a suitable urban agency to deal with these.
● The most common functional classification of the Indian cities is –
1. Administrative Cities
2. Defense Towns
3. Cultural Cities
4. Collection Centres
5. Production Centres
6. Transfer and Distribution Centres
7. Resorts Towns
8. Residential Towns
 9. Seaport Towns
10. Cities with Diversified Functions
Administrative Cities
● The main function of the administrative cities/towns is to administer the country, state, or any
other administrative unit. It includes not only the capital cities of the country but also all the
centers of states, districts, and other administrative divisional headquarters of the country. In
the administrative cities are placed the legislative, executive, and judiciary of the respective
administrative unit.
● Example: New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur,
Patna, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Aizawl, Kohima, etc. are essentially administrative cities.
Defense Towns
● The dominant functions in a defense town pertain to the security and defense of the country.
In fact, such towns are characterized by cantonments, barracks, military training centers,
garrisons, air-force bases, airfields, harbors, strategic locations, and naval headquarters.
● Example: Adampur, Ambala, Halwara, Jalandhar, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Khadakwasla, MOHO,
Pathankot, Udhampur, Vishakhapatnam, etc. are some of the examples of defense towns.

a
Cultural Cities
● These cities perform either religious, educational, or recreational functions.
○ Educational: They are characterized by universities, college buildings, libraries, and
playgrounds. They also have shops which mainly catch to the needs of the students,
nh
such as book shops, sports shops, etc.
■ Example: Shantiniketan, Aligarh, Gurukul, Kharagpur, etc.
○ Entertainment: Such towns are known for their theaters, art galleries, and other
cultural activities as that of film making.
■ Example: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, etc.
○ Religious: Religious towns can be centers of pilgrimage on the seats of religious
leaders. They are characterized by religious monuments, shops of selling religious
books, pictures, candles, agarbattis, etc.
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■ Example: Allahabad, Amritsar, Ajmer, Bodh-gaya, Dharamshala, Gangotri,

Hardwar, Pushkar, Varanasi, etc.
Collection Centres
● The mining towns, fishing ports, lumbering centers are included in this category. The
exploitation of minerals from the mines is the main function of the mining towns.
● Example: The urban places of Jawar near Udaipur, Digboi in Assam, Ankleshwar in Gujrat,
Bailadila in Chhattisgarh; Kathgodam, Halwani, Kotwar in Uttarakhand, Machlipatnam,
Kakinada, Mahe, Kozhikode, etc. are some of the examples of collection centers.
Production Centres
● The urban places having manufacturing industries are included in the category of
manufacturing cities. These cities are well connected by roads and railways.
● Example: Bhilai, Bhadrawati, Bokaro, Coimbatore, Dhanbad, Durgapur, Jamshedpur,
Vishakhapatnam, etc. are some of the important manufacturing centers of India.
Transfer and Distribution Centres
● The main functions performed at the transfer centres are trade, commerce, and services. The
market towns are characterized by markets containing a wide range of goods, stores,
warehouses godowns, cold storage, and wholesale markets supported by a good network of
transport facilities.
 ● Example: The most important commercial centers are Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai,
Ahmadabad, Gwalior, Indore, Ludhiana, Muzaffarpur, Surat, etc.
Resorts Towns
● The urban places which accommodate the recreation needs of people are known as resorts or
recreation
towns. These towns may be based on health-giving water (hot-spring), seaside recreation,
mountain-climbing, sports facilities, national parks, tiger reserves, and places of aesthetic
beauty. Resort towns are also characterized by hotels, guest houses, cinema halls, nightclubs,
shopping centers, etc.
● Example: Dehra-dun, Dalhousie, Darjeeling, Dharamshala, Gulmarg, Kullu, Manali, Mt. Abu,
Nainital, Pahalgam, Panchmadhi, Ooty, Ranikhet, etc. are some of the examples of resort
towns.
Residential Towns
● Some of the towns and cities are developed just to provide residential accommodation to the
urban people. Modern towns are usually located away from congested cities and provide
residential facilities for the urban people.

a
● Example: Delhi, Rohini, Indirapuram, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Lucknow, Jaipur, etc. are some examples of residential towns.
Seaports
● The basic task of seaports is to export and import goods.
nh
● Example: Diamond Harbour, Haldia, Kandala, Kochi, New Mangalore, New-Tuticorin,
Okhla, Paradeep, etc. are some examples of Seaport towns in India.
Cities with Diversified Functions
● As stated, most of the cities and towns of India are multifunctional. The capital cities are also
the commercial, manufacturing, cultural and recreational centers. The seaports are engaged in
trade and commerce, besides cultural activities.
● Example: New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Allahabad,
etc. are some examples of multifunctional cities of India.
ka

➢ Ashok Mitra’s Classification of Indian Cities

Ashok Mitra, a former Registrar General of the Census of India, attempted a comprehensive
classification of all Indian Cities. He divided the city function into nine groups. The groups are:
● I – Cultivation
● II – Agriculture Labour
● III – Mining, Fishing, Forestry and Livestock
● IV – Household Industry
● V – Manufacturing
● VI – Construction
● VII – Trade & Commerce
● VIII – Transportation & Communication
● IX – Services
He ignored the first two groups as they are related to villages and grouped the seven industrial
categories of workers into three broad groups:
1. Manufacturing Town (percentage of workers in III, IV, V, and VI put together is greater than
the percentage in VII + VIII or in IX).
○ i.e. (III+IV+V+VI) > (VII + VIII) or IX.
 2. Trade and Transport Town (percentage of workers in VII + VIII is greater than IX or in III +
IV + V and VI put together).
○ i.e. (VII + VIII) > IX or (III+IV+V+VI).
3. Service Town (where a percentage of workers in IX is greater than workers in III + IV+V+VI
or percentage in VII + VIII).
○ i.e. (IX) > (III + IV+V+VI) or (VII + VIII)
The degree of specialization in each of the three basic groups (a, b, and c) was identified by a
triangular method on a graph. The three sides of an equilateral triangle represent three groups by 100
values as shown in Figure:

a
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The values of all the three groups are then plotted, and a point for each town within the triangle’s
perpendiculars was located. Three circles from the in-center point (33 1/3) are drawn proportionately
ka

to represent 40, 45, and 50 values respectively.

These show an increasing tendency for specialization.
● The points within the first circle show highly diversified functions;
● points between the first and second circle are moderately diversified;
● points between the second and third represent specialized predominant function, and
● the points outside the outer (third) circle show highly specialized predominant function.
The classification of 2,528 towns shows that as many as 736 were agriculture, (total number of
workers exceeding the number of workers in three non-agricultural groups), and out of 1,792
non-agricultural towns, 655 were manufacturing towns, 708 as trade and transport towns, and 429 as
service towns.
Mitra’s classification, on the whole, brings the major categories of cities with their specialization. It
distinguishes three broad functional categories – manufacturing, trading, and service (administration)
among cities. The majority of cities show no clear specialization in one economic activity and have a
diversified economic base. The diversified city with multiple functions constitutes the most common
and representative type of city.
❖ Conurbations and Metropolitan:
Depending on size, services availability, functions, urban settlement can be divided into the following
types:
 ● Town
● City
● Conurbation
● Metropolitan City
● Megalopolis
Town:
It is an example of a smaller urban settlement and provides specific function such as:
● Manufacturing
● Retail and wholesale trade
● Professional services
City:
Cities are much larger than town and have a most complex life than the town. It has a greater number
of economic functions. It has generally less than 1 million population.
​ For example, Bokaro Steel City, Ooty,
Conurbation:
The conurbation is made up of two words; con + urban; means continuous urbanization.

a
Conurbation term was coined by Patrick Geddes in 1915. The conurbation has resulted in the
merging of originally separated towns, cities, or metropolitan cities. It is formed due to the
agglomeration of a town and adjoining towns or cities. Conurbation comprises the main city with its
satellite towns or other towns.
nh
For example,
● the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, it is comprised of seven corporation and 15 municipal
councils.
● Delhi NCR region comprises Delhi with the surrounding districts of Haryana, Rajasthan, and
Uttar Pradesh.
Future conurbation region:
● Mumbai-Pune
● Mumbai-Ahmedabad
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Metropolitan:
As per the census of India, the cities having a population between 1 to 5 million are termed as
metropolitan.
There are total-46 cities having more than 1 million population as per the 2011 population census.
Metropolitan may or may not be formed through conurbation or urban agglomeration process.
For example, all the second-order cities in India is an example of metropolitan cities; such as Surat,
Nagpur, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow
Megalopolis or super metropolition region:
Megalopolis words coined by Jeans Gottman ( 1957). It is generally a union of Megalopolis. As per
the population census of India, the urban settlement has a population larger than 5 million population.
The following are Megalopolis in India:
● Mumbai: 16.4 million
● Kolkata: 13.22 million
● Delhi: 12.79 million
● Chennai: 6.42
● Bangalore
● Hyderabad
❖ Urban Sprawl:
Poorly planned or unplanned cities generally not able to accommodate future needs or large
population within urban areas, and urban areas expand and they encroach the surrounding areas of
suburban, villages, or forest land, which is called urban sprawls.

Types of Urban Sprawl:

● Continuous sprawl
○ Low-density continuous sprawl is a phenomenon caused by outward spreading of
low-density suburban land use as currently being experienced by many of cities like
America as their population becoming bigger and bigger and there is no lack of land
supply. this highly consumptive use of land for urban purposes is supported by
piecemeal extensions of basic urban infrastructure such as water, sewer, power and
roads.
● Ribbon sprawl
○ Ribbon sprawl is a type of sprawl characterized by concentration of development
along major transportation arteries, primarily roads. while development occurs on land

a
adjacent to the major roads, areas without accessibility to the roads tend to remain as
greenareas, waiting for conversion into urban land uses when land values increase and
infrastructure is extended from the major roads.
● Leapfrog sprawl
nh
○ Leapfrog development sprawl is a scattered form of urbanization with disjointed
patched of urban land uses, interspersed with green areas. Leapfrog development may
be caused by obvious physical limitations such as prohibitive topography, water
bodies and wetlands or by more subtle reasons such as differences in development
policies between political jurisdictions.
Ribbon sprawls leads to conurbation and leapfrog sprawl leads to the development of satellite towns.

Nearly all urban cities are characterized by urban sprawl. Through Urban sprawl, town converted to
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cities; cities to metro; metro to megacity;

Causes of urban sprawl:

● Growing population
● Some population prefer spacious space to live
● New demand for School, hospital, Airport, etc.

The consequence of Urban Sprawl:

Urban sprawl has both positive and negative consequences.

 The positive consequence of Urban sprawl:

● Local economic growth

● Increase of urbanization

Negative consequences:

● Poor infrastructure availability in periphery region crease jam, fatalities

● Loss of agricultural lands and forest lands.
● Increase of personal vehicle such as a car, truck for goods, and services that lead to air
pollution.
● Increasement in construction activities, chemicals, and heavy metal increases the water
pollution
● Water distribution issues and increase of water demand
● Degradation of overall human health
● Loss of open space
❖ Slums and Associate Problems:

a
● “Slums are an urban menace” Elucidate with Indian cities as examples. ( UPSC 2007)
● How do the ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ factors operate for the emergence of slums in the metropolises of
India? ( UPSC 2009)
● Define slums and explain their problems. ( UPSC 2013)
nh
● How do slums develop? Give concrete suggestions for their improvement. ( UPSC 2016)
● Why have slum areas expanded in the urban centers of India during the last three decades?
How do they influence the urban environment? ( 66th BPSC)

Slum settlements are a type of settlement that is illegally settled on public land in urban
areas. It is generally found near airports, railway stations, railway lines, riverbanks, near
markets, etc.
ka

As per UN-HABITAT, slums are characterized by:

● Substandard house.
● Very high population density.
● Home of urban poor.
● Lacking tenure security.
● Unsystematic development.

Examples of Slums are,

● India's largest and Asia's second-largest Slum is Dharavi, which is located in the
middle of Mumbai. It spreads in 230 hectares that has more than 5 lakh population.
The life expectancy of people living in the Dharavi is about 40 years.
● Neza in Mexico is the largest Slum in the world.

As per NSSO 2012 report:

● There are 33,510 slums in India.

● 17.4 % of the urban population lives in slum areas.
 ● The highest slum area is in Maharashtra.

Causes of Slums development:

There are two main reasons for slum development in India:

● The partition of India led to the formation of large-scale slums in the Delhi and
Kolkata regions.
● Slum areas were formed in most of the cities due to unplanned urban development.
Slums are a by-product of unplanned urbanization.

Unplanned urban growth is characterized by the following:

● Uncontrolled rural-urban migration leads to a lack of basic infrastructure like land

and house in the city, due to which the poor living in the city are forced to live in
slums as they do not have enough money to pay the expensive rent.
● Due to the growing informal economy, people's jobs have become insecure and many
people do not even get work daily, due to which people live in slums by building

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temporary houses.

During the last three decades, slum areas expanded rapidly in the urban centers of India due to
the following reasons:
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● The demand-supply gap for urban infrastructure (mainly houses and land) widened
after liberalization, privatization, globalization (LPG) reforms. Due to this slum
settlements have increased further.
● LPG reforms have not provided equal benefits to all people and have widened the gap
between the rich and the poor.
● With limited access to the financial resources of urban dwellers, especially the poor
masses, they are unable to buy homes or pay expensive rents. Due to which people
prefer to live in slums because the rent there is a lot of work.
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● Due to poor urban governance, paucity of resources, widespread corruption,

unplanned urban infrastructure, etc., slums spread but do not develop.

Influence of Slums in the urban environment:

The following are the implications of slums on urban centers:

● A large population of slum areas suffers from waterborne and other diseases like TB,
AIDS, Cholera. This increases the health burden in the urban center.
● Due to the uncertainty in income, it increases the crime rate in the urban center.
● In the urban center, beggars also increase social evils like child trafficking,
prostitution, etc.
● Children, women, and the elderly are generally malnourished in slum areas.
● Education and health infrastructure are lacking.
● The main source of labor supply in the city is the slums which provide cheap service.

Government steps for slum development:

● Slum rehabilitation act 1956

● National housing scheme
 ● AMRUT, smart city
● The government aims to replace all slum areas with concrete homes by 2045.
➢ Associate Problems :
○ Lack of Basic Necessities
■ Lack of basic necessities is one of the most frequently mentioned characteristics of slum
definitions worldwide. Lack of access to improved sanitation facilities and improved water
sources is the most important feature, sometimes supplemented by the absence of waste
collection systems, electricity supply, surfaced roads and footpaths, street lighting and
rainwater drainage.
○ Overcrowding and High Density
■ Overcrowding has been associated with a low space per person living in an area, high
occupancy rates, cohabitation by different families and a high number of single-room units.
Mostly slum-dwelling units are overcrowded, with five to six and more persons sharing a
one-room unit used for cooking, sleeping and living.
○ Substandard Housing or Illegal and Inadequate Building Structures
■ Many cities have building standards that set minimum requirements for residential

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buildings. Slum areas have been associated with a high number of substandard housing
structures, often built with non-permanent materials unsuitable for housing given local
conditions of climate and location. Factors contributing to the structure being considered
substandard are, for example, earthen floors, mud-and-wattle walls or straw roofs. Various
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space and dwelling placement bylaws may also be extensively violated.
○ Unhealthy Living Conditions and Hazardous Locations
■ Unhealthy living conditions result from a lack of basic services, with visible, open sewers,
lack of pathways, uncontrolled dumping of waste, polluted environments, etc. their houses
can be built on hazardous locations or land unsuitable for settlement, such as floodplains, in
proximity to industrial plants with toxic emissions or waste disposal sites, and on the areas
subject to a landslip. The settlement layout may be hazardous because of a lack of access
ways and high densities of dilapidated structures.
○ Insecure Tenure, Irregular or Informal Settlements
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■ A number of slums have considered lack of security of tenure as a central characteristic of

slums and regard lack of formal document entitling the occupant to occupy the land or
structure as prima facie evidence of illegality and slum occupation. Informal or unplanned
settlements are often regarded as synonymous with slums. Mostly emphasise both
informality of occupation and the non-compliance of settlements with land-use plans. The
factors contributing to non-compliance are settlements built on land reserved for
non-residential purposes or invasions of non-urban land.
○ Poverty and Social Exclusion
■ Income or capability poverty is considered, with some exceptions, as a central characteristic
of slum areas. It is not seen as an inherent characteristic of slums, but as a cause (and, to a
large extent, a consequence) of slum conditions. Slum conditions are physical and statutory
manifestations that create barriers to human and social development. Furthermore, slums are
social exclusion areas that are often perceived to have high levels of crime and other social
dislocation measures. In some definitions, such areas are associated with certain vulnerable
groups of the population, such as recent immigrants, internally displaced persons or ethnic
minorities.
○ Minimum Settlement Size
■ Many slums also require some minimum settlement size for an area to be considered a slum,
so that the slum constitutes a distinct precinct and is not a single dwelling. Examples are the
 municipal slum definition of Delhi that requires a minimum of 700 square meters to be
occupied by huts, or the Indian census definition, which requires at least 300 population or
60 households living in a settlement cluster.

❖ Town Planning:
● Analyze the feasibility of ‘Smart Towns’ Development in India.
● “Mono-functional towns are economically vulnerable.” Discuss
Town Planning:
Town planning includes policy formulation, regulation, and implementation strategies for the
inclusive and sustainable development of the city.
Why town planning is needed?
As per the 2011 population census, approx 31 % population is living in urban areas and as of now in
2019, 34 % of the Indian population is living in the urban settlement. The figure will grow rapidly,
we need to plan for urbanization.
The following are the current problems that our cities are facing:
● Urban flood due to poor drainage design, poor waste disposal, the encroachment of river

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flood areas, siltation of river, pood dam discharging management, etc
● Urban fire in building due to bad building design, lack of awareness, unreachability of fire
grenadier due to narrow roads.
● Traffic congestion
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● Lack of potation water and groundwater depletion due to water pollution and unscientific
management of water resources
● Lack of waste treatment plants
● Lack of funds to manage
The following are the main aims of town planning:
● Improve the quality of life
● Sustainable development of cities and achieve the UN Sustainable development Goal 11.
● Minimize the effect of natural hazards such as floods and earthquakes as well as human-made
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hazards such as fire.

● Minimize pollution such as water and air pollution
● Minimize the effect of greenhouse gases and the urban heat islands phenomenon
● Minimize the depletion of natural resources such as groundwater depletion
● To make scientific land use
● Good land-use plans include:
​ Separate scientific land use plan for residential and commercial purposes.
● Groundwater recharging or sponge city concept
● White painting of building to minimize the effect of greenhouse gases
● Scientific designing of building to minimize the electricity consumption and availability of
fresh air and sun heat to minimize the many diseases including TB.
● Earthquakes resilient building
● River regulation
Government steps:
● Decentralization of power in 73rd and 74th Constitution amendments in 1992.
● 2005 Jawahar Lal Nehru national renewable mission
● 2015: Smart City project, make 100 cities smart in 5 years.
● 2015, AMRUT, Atla mission for rejuvenation and urban transformation
 Future steps:
● Ensuring public participation
● Need financial independence of the city.
❖ Problems Of Urbanisation And Remedies:

● Describe how urbanization creates air and water pollution in India. (2013)
● Describe the causes and effects of urbanization in India and explain its impact on the rural
landscape and urban ecology. (2016)
What is urbanization?
● An increase in the proportion of the urban population as well as urban geographical areas is
called urbanization.
Urbanization is good for countries as it is the main driving force for countries' development in the
following ways:
● Through urbanization, agglomeration of industries, skills, knowledge, facilities, etc developed
in urban areas, leads to :
○ Increase in profitability through economies of scale

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○ Transformation of low-income people to high-income people
○ Forward and backward linkage of industries developed.
● Since the urban settlement provides better opportunities for people hence people migrated to
the city for jobs and civil amenities.
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Urbanization is not at all problem, but unsustainable and unplanned urbanization creates the
following problems:
● Urban Sprawl
● Congestion
● Shortage of houses
● Vertical expansion
● Growth of slums and substandard houses
● Illegal settlements
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Urbanization problems can be categorized in the following ways:

Economic Problems:
● Decreasing job opportunities in rural areas.
● The smaller town creates push factors; leading to the overcrowding of skilled and
semi-skilled laborers in cities.
Socio-economic problems:
● Insufficient financial resources fail to create adequate social infrastructure for catering huge
population.
● The urban poor is not able to get quality education and health facilities.
● Selective sex migration disturbs the demographics of the urban center.
● Lack of job opportunities increases the crime rate
Environmental problems:
● Very difficult to get sufficient potable water for domestic and industrial uses
● Improper sewage systems create unhealthy conditions
● The massive use of traditional fuels for domestic and industrial uses increases air pollution
● Lacking treatment facilities for domestic and industrial waste dumped into water creates
water pollution.

Remedies for Urbanization

● Urban centers of developing countries first need to check the rural-urban migration. It needs
rural development and the development of smaller town areas. The legal framework for town
planning should be strictly enforced for better land use. Slum recreation, poverty eradication,
house construction is to be done. Global help for capital and technology is needed for housing
and job creation. It needs a multidimensional approach.
○ Rapid Mass Transport (RMT) for better transportation system.
○ Reform of the urban water sector.
○ Efficient use of urban land – Scientific town planning & Sustainable development of
urban planning needed.
○ Long term strategic urban planning with the overall regional planning perspective.
○ The environmental sustainability of urban development.
○ Investment in new urban infrastructure assets and maintenance of assets.
○ Need to strengthen urban governance
○ To strengthen the ‘soft infrastructure’
○ Improvements of urban utilities such as water and sewerage NUHM (National Urban
Health Mission) for better urban public health.

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○ Need to fulfill the basic needs of the urban poor.
○ Migration needs to be regulated
○ Smart city concept if implemented effectively
○ Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA)
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○ Population control
○ Innovation needed to control pollution and waste handling
○ Rurbanization: Provide like urban facilities in rural areas or make rural areas smart is
called rurbanization.
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