TRENDS CHARACTERISTICS THEORIES ON GROWTH

OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT
 A human settlement is defined as a place inhabited more or less
permanently. It includes buildings in which they live or use and the paths and
streets over which they travel. It also includes the temporary camps of the hunters
and herders. It may consists of only a few dwelling units called hamlets or big cluster
of buildings called urban cities.
1. Urban settlements:
• These types of settlement are nodal in character and have secondary and
tertiary activities.
• The chief occupation of the people of urban areas is non-agricultural i.e. industry, trade and
services.
• The major function of an urban area are trades and commerce, transport and
communication, mining and manufacturing, defense, administration, cultural and
recreational activities.
• Population density is high and the settlement size is large.
2. Rural settlements
• These settlements are chiefly concerned with primary activities such as
agriculture, mining, fishing, forestry etc.
• Most of the people of rural settlement are engaged in agricultural work.
• The major function of rural settlement is agriculture and each settlement specializes in
various activities.
• Population density is small and the settlement size is small.
Settlement is classified into urban and rural, but there is no consensus:
• Population size is small in rural settlement than urban settlements but it is not a
universally applied because many villages of India and China have population exceeding
that of some towns of Western Europe and United States.
• People living in villages pursued agriculture or other primary activities, but presently in
developed countries, large sections of urban populations prefer to live in villages even
though they work in the city.
• Petrol pumps are considered as a rural function in the United States while it is an urban
function in India.
• Facilities available in the villages of developed countries may be considered rare in
villages of developing and less developed countries.
• Settlements can also be classified on the basis of shape and pattern
into

COMPACT SETTLEMENTS
• In these settlement houses are built very close to each other.
• Such settlements are found in river valleys and fertile plains.
• The people are closely tied and share common occupations.

DISPERSED SETTLEMENTS
• In these settlements houses are built far apart from each other.
• These settlements consist of one or two houses and cultural feature
such as a church or a temple binds the settlement together.
• Such settlements are found over hills, plateau and highlands.
NUCLEATED:
• Nucleated settlements have buildings which are close
together.
• They often grew around a road junction or a river
crossing.

LINEAR:
• Linear settlements have a long and narrow shape.
• They often follow roadways, riverbanks, canals or narrow
valleys where there is little room to grow outwards.
• Rural settlements are most closely and directly related to land. They are dominated by
primary activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing etc. The settlements size
is relatively small.
RURAL SETTLEMENTS ARE INFLUENCED BY FOLLOWING FACTORS
• Water Supply: Usually rural settlements are located near water bodies such as rivers,
lakes, and springs where water can be easily obtained. The need for water drives
people to settle in islands surrounded by swamps or low lying river banks. Water supply is
main factor because water is used for drinking, cooking and washing, rivers and lakes can
be used to irrigate farm land, water bodies also have fish which can be caught for diet and
navigable rivers and lakes can be used for transportation.
• Land: People choose to settle near fertile lands suitable for agriculture. Early settlers
chose plain areas with fertile soils. In Europe villages are found near gently sloping land,
in south East Asia villages are near low lying river valleys and coastal plains suited for
wet rice cultivation.
• UPLAND: Villages are located on uplands which is not prone to flooding. Thus, in
low lying river basins people chose to settle on terraces and levees which are “dry points”.
In tropical countries people build their houses on stilts near marshy lands to protect
themselves from flood, insects and animal pests.
• BUILDING MATERIAL: The availability of building materials- wood, stone near
settlements is another factor. Early villages were built in forests where wood was
plentiful. In African Savanna’s mud bricks are used as building materials and the
Eskimos, in Polar Regions, use ice blocks to construct igloos.
• DEFENCE: During the times of political instability, war, aggression of neighboring
groups villages were built on defensive hills and islands. In Nigeria, villages are built
on upstanding rocks; in India most of the forts are located on hills.
• Patterns of rural settlements is influenced by the site of the village, the surrounding
topography and terrain.
• On the basis of setting : The main types are
a. Plain villages,
b. Plateau villages,
c. Coastal villages,
d. Forest villages and
e. Desert villages.
ii. On the basis of functions :
There may be
a. Farming villages,
b. Fishermen’s villages,
c. Lumberjack villages,
d. Pastoral villages etc.
FORMS OR SHAPES OF THE SETTLEMENTS : These
may be a number of geometrical forms and shapes such as:
a. Linear pattern : In such settlements houses are located along
a road, railway line, river, canal edge of a valley or along a
levee.
b. Rectangular pattern : Such patterns of rural settlements are
found in plain areas or wide inter-montane valleys. The roads
are rectangular and cut each other at right angles.
c. Circular pattern : Circular villages develop around lakes,
tanks and sometimes the village is planned in such a way that
the central part remains open and is used for keeping the
animals to protect them from wild animals.
d. STAR LIKE PATTERN : Where several roads converge, star shaped
settlements develop by the houses built along the roads.
e. T-SHAPED, Y-SHAPED, CROSS-SHAPED OR CRUCIFORM
SETTLEMENTS : T –shaped settlements develop at tri-junctions of the
roads. Y–shaped settlements emerge as the places where two roads
converge on the third one and houses are built along these roads. Cruciform
settlements develop on the cross-roads and houses extend in all the four
direction.
f. DOUBLE VILLAGE : These settlements extend on both sides of a river
where there is a bridge or a ferry.
Urban settlements are classified on the basis of its SIZE OF THE POPULATION,
OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION.

• POPULATION SIZE: - in India a settlement having population more than 5000

persons is called urban. In Japan it is 30000 persons whereas in Sweden it is 250 persons.
The cut off figure depends on the density of population in the country.
• Occupational Structure: - besides population size, occupation is also taken as the
criteria. In India, if more than 75 percent of workforce is engaged in nonagricultural
activities then the settlement is called as urban. Other countries have their own criteria for
e.g. in Italy it is 50 percent.
• ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE: - in India a settlement is classified as urban if it
has a municipality, cantonment board or a notified area. In Brazil any administrative
center is termed as urban.
LOCATION of urban centres is influenced by their function. Site refers to the actual piece
of ground on which the settlement is built. Situation refers to the location of the settlement
in relation to the surrounding areas.
• Strategic towns require sites offering natural defence;
• Mining towns require the presence of economically valuable minerals;
• Industrial towns generally need local energy supplies or raw materials;
• Tourist centres require attractive scenery, or a marine beach, a spring with medicinal
water or historical relics,
• Ports require a harbour.
• Availability of water, building materials and fertile land also plays an important role in
locating urban settlements.
• The urban centres which are located close to an important trade route have experienced
rapid development.
How a settlement can be described ?

•  SITE : Site describes the actual land upon which a settlement is built.
• SITUATION : Situation describes where a settlement is located in relation to other
surrounding features such as other settlements, rivers and communications.
• FUNCTION : The function of a settlement relates to its economic and social
development and refers to its main activities.
• SHAPE : Shape Describes how the settlement is laid out. Its pattern.
• POPULATION : The size & type of people that live in a settlement.
• AREA : How large the area of a settlement is
Dominant functions of urban areas are:
• the earlier functions of towns were related to administration, trade, industry, defence and
religious.
• today, towns perform multiple functions such as, recreational, residential, transport,
mining, manufacturing and most recently activities related to information technology.
• some towns are known for their functions for example, sheffield as an industrial city,
london as a port city, chandigarh as an administrative city.
• large cities have a rather greater diversity of functions.
Ways towns and cities of the world are functionally classified
Administrative Towns: - National capitals, which have headquarters of the administrative offices of
Central Government, are called administrative towns, such as new Delhi, Canberra, Moscow, and
Washington.
Defense Towns: - Centers of military activities are known as defense towns. They are of three types:
Fort towns, Garrison towns and Naval bases. Jodhpur is a fort town; Mhow is a garrison town; and
Kochi is a naval base.
Cultural Towns: - towns famous for religious, educational or recreational functions are called
cultural towns. Places of pilgrimage, such as Jerusalem, Mecca, Jagannath Puri and Varanasi etc. are
considered as religious towns. There are also recreational towns such as Las Vegas in the USA.
Industrial Towns: - Mining and manufacturing regions. Dhanbad and Khetri are examples
of mining towns. Towns which have developed due to setting up of industries such as
Jameshdpur are called industrial towns.
Trading and Commercial Towns: - Many old towns were famous as trade centres such as
Lahore in Pakistan, Baghdad in Iraq and Agra in India. Some towns have developed as
transport towns such as Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Aden in Yemen and Mumbai in India
are port towns.
 Depending on the size and the services available and functions rendered, urban centres are designated
as town, city, million city, conurbation, and megalopolis.
• Town: Population size in town is higher than the village. Functions such as, manufacturing, retail and
wholesale trade, and professional services exist in towns.
• City: A city may be regarded as a leading town. Cities are much larger than towns and have a greater
number of economic functions. They tend to have transport terminals, major financial institutions and
regional administrative offices. When the population crosses the one million mark it is designated as a
million city.
• Conurbation: The term conurbation was coined by Patrick Geddes in 1915 and applied to a large
area of urban development that resulted from the merging of originally separate towns
or cities. Greater London, Greater Mumbai, Manchester, Chicago and Tokyo are examples.
• Megalopolis: This Greek word meaning “great city”, was popularised by Jean Gottman (1957) and
signifies ‘super- metropolitan’ region extending, as union of conurbations. The urban landscape
stretching from Boston in the north to south of Washington in U.S.A. is the best known example of a
megalopolis.
What is a settlement hierarchy?

It’s a way of ranking settlements in order of their size and

importance
• Isolated dwelling – an isolated dwelling would only have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it.
It would have negligible services, if any.
• A hamlet is a rural community —a small settlement — which is too small to be considered
a village. A hamlet has a tiny population (below 100 ) and very few (if any) services, and
few buildings.
• A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller
than a town or city. Though generally located in rural areas. A village generally does not
have many services, possibly only a small corner shop or post office. A village has a
population of 100 to 1,000.
• A town has a population of 1,000 to 20,000. A town is a type of settlement ranging from a
few to several thousand (occasionally hundreds of thousands) inhabitants. Usually, a
"town" is thought of as larger than a village but smaller than a "city",
• A city would have abundant services, but not as many as a large city. The population of a
city is over 100,000 people. A city is an urban area with a large population and a
particular administrative, legal, or historical status.
• A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its
adjacent zone of influence
• Central place theory is a geographical theory that seeks to explain the number,
size and location of human settlements in an urban system.The theory was
created by the German geographer Walter Christaller, who asserted that
settlements simply functioned as 'central places' providing services to
surrounding areas
EKISTICS FRAMEWORK

• Doxiadis posited a convenient way of organizing information and mapping out the
components and relationships of the elements within the human settlements realm.
He suggests to have a Classificatory System that will be a methodology to establish
the hierarchical structure and links among elements of a system.
• Ekistics is the science of human settlements; this characteristic refers to functions
expressed in space by area of certain dimensions. In practice, Ekistics has set the
goal of human happiness .
• His two Classificatory Dimensions…
1. First Dimension- relative to Scale:
* Lower End- the individual, the room, and the dwelling; and increases in size
all the way into the...
* Other Extreme- the city, the urban continent, and the "world-wide city"--
which he called an Ecumenopolis
EKISTICS FRAMEWORK
2. Second Dimension- man's five Environmental Elements:
* Nature
* Society
* Shells
* Networks
* Culture
• The first principle is maximization of man's potential contacts with the elements of nature (such
as water and trees), with other people, and with the works of man (such as buildings and roads).
• The second principle is minimization of the effort required for the achievement of man's actual
and potential contacts.
• The third principle is optimization of man's protective space, which means the selection of such a
distance from other persons, animals, or objects that he can keep his Contacts with them (first
principle) without any kind of Sensory Or Psychological discomfort.
• The fourth principle is optimization of the quality of man's relationship with his environment, which
consists of nature, society, shells (buildings and houses of all sorts)and networks (ranging from
roads to telecommunications). This is the principle that leads to order, physiological and aesthetic,
and that influences architecture and, in many respects, art.
 EKISTICS FRAMEWORK
• Finally, and this is the fifth principle, man organizes his
settlements in an attempt to achieve an optimum synthesis of
the other four principles, and this optimization is dependent on
time and space, on actual conditions, and on man's ability to
create a synthesis.
• Ekistics & other Disciplines: In the first five volumes, it is
interesting to note that out of a total of 105 papers, 66 (or
62.9%) are papers in economics, mainly regional economic
analysis. Six papers(or5.7%) are on geography, and 16 (or
15.2%) on regional science in general. Physical planning is
represented by 6.7% political aspects by 3.8%, sociology by
3.8% and transportation by 1.9%. It is quite clear where the
center of gravity lies.