© Ncert Not To Be Republished: Human Settlements
© Ncert Not To Be Republished: Human Settlements
© Ncert Not To Be Republished: Human Settlements
ed
buildings may be altered, functions may change
but settlement continues in time and space.
There may be some settlements which are
temporary and are occupied for short periods,
may be a season.
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Human Settlements CL ASSIFICA
CLASSIFICA TION OF SETTLEMENTS
ASSIFICATION
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RURAL URB AN DICHO
URBAN TOMY
DICHOT
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It is widely accepted that settlements can be
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there is no consensus on what exactly defines
a village or a town. Although population size is
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an important criterion, it is not a universal
criterion since many villages in densely
populated countries of India and China have
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Sub Urbanisation
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ed
available in the villages of developed countries
may be considered rare in villages of developing
and less developed countries.
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settlements as “All places which have
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municipality, corporation, cantonment board
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or notified town area committee and have a
minimum population of 5000 persons, at
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least 75 per cent of male workers are
engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a
Fig. 10.2: Dispersed Settlements
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density of population of at least 400 persons Rural Settlements
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per square kilometers are urban. Rural settlements are most closely and directly
related to land. They are dominated by primary
activities such as agriculture, animal
TYPES AND PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENTS
PATTERNS
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Water Supply
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ed
rolling country avoiding swampy, low lying Sites that are not spontaneously chosen by
land while people in south east Asia chose to villagers themselves, planned settlements are
live near low lying river valleys and coastal constructed by governments by providing
plains suited for wet rice cultivation. Early shelter, water and other infrastructures on
settlers chose plain areas with fertile soils.
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acquired lands. The scheme of villagisation in
Ethiopia and the canal colonies in Indira
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Upland
Gandhi canal command area in India are some
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Upland which is not prone to flooding was good examples.
chosen to prevent damage to houses and loss
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of life. Thus, in low lying river basins people Rural Settlement Patterns
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chose to settle on terraces and levees which are Patterns of rural settlements reflect the way the
“dry points”. In tropical countries people build
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houses are sited in relation to each other. The
their houses on stilts near marshy lands to site of the village, the surrounding topography
protect themselves from flood, insects and and terrain influence the shape and size of a
animal pests.
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village.
Rural settlements may be classified on the
Building Material basis of a number of criteria:
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The availability of building materials- wood, (i) On the basis of setting: The main types
stone near settlements is another advantage. are plain villages, plateau villages,
Early villages were built in forest clearings where coastal villages, forest villages and
wood was plentiful. desert villages.
(ii) On the basis of functions: There may
©
In loess areas of China, cave dwellings were rural settlements are found in plain
important and African Savanna’s building areas or wide inter montane valleys.
materials were mud bricks and the Eskimos, in The roads are rectangular and cut each
polar regions, use ice blocks to construct igloos. other at right angles.
Human Settlements 93
Linear Pattern Cross-shape Pattern Star-like Pattern
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T-Shape Pattern Circular Pattern Double Pattern
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Railway Road River Canal Well
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Presently 48 per cent of the world’s population
Problems of Rural Settlements lives in urban settlements compared to only 3
per cent in the year 1800 (Table 10.1).
Rural settlements in the developing countries
are large in number and poorly equipped with
Table 10.1: Percentage of World’s Population Living
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infrastructure. They represent a great challenge in Urban Areas
and opportunity for planners.
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Supply of water to rural settlements in Year Percentage
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developing countries is not adequate. People
1800 3
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in villages, particularly in mountainous and
arid areas have to walk long distances to fetch 1850 6
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drinking water. Water borne diseases such as 1900 14
The design and use of building materials country to another. Some of the common basis
of houses vary from one ecological region to of classification are size of population,
another. The houses made up of mud, wood occupational structure and administrative
and thatch, remain susceptible to damage setup.
©
problem. During rainy season, the settlements persons per sq km and share of non-agricultural
remain cut off and pose serious difficulties in workers are taken into consideration in India.
providing emergency services. It is also difficult Countries with low density of population may
to provide adequate health and educational choose a lower number as the cut-off figure
no
infrastructure for their large rural population. compared to densely populated countries. In
The problem is particularly serious where Denmark, Sweden and Finland, all places with
proper villagisation has not taken place and a population size of 250 persons are called
houses are scattered over a large area. urban. The minimum population for a city is
Human Settlements 95
300 in Iceland, whereas in Canada and urban centres which are located close to an
Venezuela, it is 1,000 persons. important trade route have experienced rapid
development.
Occupational Structure
Functions of Urban Centres
In some countries, such as India, the major
economic activities in addition to the size of the The earliest towns were centres of
population in designating a settlement as urban administration, trade, industry, defence and
are also taken as a criterion. Similarly, in Italy, a religious importance. The significance of defence
settlement is called urban, if more than 50 per and religion as differentiating functions has
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cent of its economically productive population declined in general, but other functions have
is engaged in non-agricultural pursuits. India entered the list. Today, several new functions,
has set this criterion at 75 per cent. such as, recreational, residential, transport,
mining, manufacturing and most recently
Administration activities related to information technology are
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carried on in specialised towns. Some of these
The administrative setup is a criterion for
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classifying a settlement as urban in some functions do not necessarily require the urban
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centre to have any fundamental relationship
countries. For example, in India, a settlement
of any size is classified as urban, if it has a with their neighbouring rural areas.
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municipality, Cantonment Board or Notified
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Area Council. Similarly, in Latin American
countries, such as Brazil and Bolivia, any What would be the effects of Information
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administrative centre is considered urban and Communication Technology (ICT) as
irrespective of its population size. a function on the development of existing
and new settlements?
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Location
Location of urban centres is examined with
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to a distant settlement, building material can National capitals, which house the administrative
be transported from long distances. offices of central governments, such as New Delhi,
Apart from site, the situation plays an Canberra, Beijing, Addis Ababa, Washington
important role in the expansion of towns. The D.C., and London etc. are called administrative
ed
centres like Manchester and St Louis; and urban sprawls.
transport nodes such as, Lahore, Baghdad and
Addis Ababa (The New Flower)
Agra have been important trading centres.
The name of Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, as
Cultural Towns the name indicates (Addis-New, Ababa-Flower)
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is a ‘new’ city which was established in 1878.
Places of pilgrimage, such as Jerusalem, Mecca,
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Jagannath Puri and Varanasi etc. are The whole city is located on a hill-valley
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considered cultural towns. These urban topography. The road pattern bears the influence
centres are of great religious importance.
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Additional functions which the cities
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perform are health and recreation (Miami and
Panaji), industrial (Pittsburgh and
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Jamshedpur), mining and quarrying (Broken
Hill and Dhanbad) and transport (Singapore
and Mughal Sarai).
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Developed countries experienced rapid urbanisation Fig. 10.8: Morphology of Addis Ababa
during the nineteenth century.
CLASSIFICA
CLASSIFICA TION OF TO
ASSIFICATION WNS ON THE
TOWNS
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BASIS OF FORMS
An urban settlement may be linear, square, star
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Human Settlements 97
of the local topography. The roads radiate from each with separate city functions. During the
the govt headquarters Piazza, Arat and Amist last few decades, the city has expanded to
Kilo roundabouts. Mercato has markets which accommodate several satellite towns, which
grew with time and is supposed to be the largest have their own centres. The city has wide-open
market between Cairo and Johannesburg. A spaces and many parks and gardens.
multi-faculty university, a medical college, a
number of good schools make Addis Ababa an Types of Urban Settlements
educational centre. It is also the terminal station Depending on the size and the services available
for the Djibouti-Addis Ababa rail route. Bole
and functions rendered, urban centres are
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airport is a relatively new airport. The city has designated as town, city, million city,
witnessed rapid growth because of its multi-
conurbation, megalopolis.
functional nature and being a large nodal centre
located in the centre of Ethiopia. Town
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Canberra The concept of ‘town’ can best be understood
with reference to ‘village’. Population size is not
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Canberra was planned as the capital of the only criterion. Functional contrasts between
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Australia in 1912 by American landscape
towns and villages may not always be clear-
architect, Walter Burley Griffin. He had cut, but specific functions such as,
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envisaged a garden city for about 25,000 people manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and
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taking into account the natural features of the
professional services exist in towns.
landscape. There were to be five main centres,
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City
A city may be regarded as a leading town, which
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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, Manchester, Chicago and
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Megalopolis
no
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Paris in 1850, New York in 1860, and by 1950 8 New York United States 21,500,000 21.5
of America
there were around 80 such cities. The rate of 9 São Paulo Brazil 21,100,000 21.1
increase in the number of million cities has been 10 Bombay India 20,800,000 20.8
three-fold in every three decades – around 160 11 Manila Philippines 20,700,000 20.7
12 Karachi Pakistan 17,400,000 17.4
in 1975 to around 438 in 2005.
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13 Los Angeles United States 17,000,000 17.0
of America
Table 10.2: Continent–wise Distribution
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14 Osaka Japan 16,800,000 16.8
of Million Cities
15 Beijing China 16,400,000 16.4
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Continent Early Mid Mid 16 Moscow Russia 16,200,000 16.2
1950 1970s 2000 17 Cairo Egypt 15,700,000 15.7
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19
Calcutta
Buenos
India
Argentina Aires
15,700,000
14,300,000
15.7
14.3
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Europe 23 30 58
20 Dacca Bangladesh 14,000,000 14.0
Asia 32 69 206 21 Bangkok Thailand 13,800,000 13.8
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North and Central America 16 36 79 22 Tehran Iran 13,500,000 13.5
South America 8 17 43 23 Istanbul Turkey 13,400,000 13.4
24 Lagos Nigeria 12,700,000 12.7
Africa 3 8 46
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Source: www.citypopulation.de/World.html
Human Settlements 99
Problems of Urban Settlements Economic Problems
People flock to cities to avail of employment The decreasing employment opportunities in
opportunities and civic amenities. Since most the rural as well as smaller urban areas of the
cities in developing countries are unplanned, developing countries consistently push the
it creates severe congestion. Shortage of population to the urban areas. The enormous
housing, vertical expansion and growth of migrant population generates a pool of un-
slums are characteristic features of modern skilled and semi-skilled labour force, which is
cities of developing countries. In many cities already saturated in urban areas.
an increasing proportion of the population
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lives in substandard housing, e.g. slums and Socio-cultural Problems
squatter settlements. In most million plus
Cities in the developing countries suffer from
cities in India, one in four inhabitants lives in several social ills. Insufficient financial resources
illegal settlements, which are growing twice as fail to create adequate social infrastructure
fast as the rest of the cities. Even in the Asia
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catering to the basic needs of the huge
Pacific countries, around 60 per cent of the population. The available educational and
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urban population lives in squatter settlements.
health facilities remain beyond the reach of the
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re R urban poor. Health indices also, present a
gloomy picture in cities of developing countries.
Lack of employment and education tends to
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aggravate the crime rates. Male selective
migration to the urban areas distorts the sex
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ratio in these cities.
Environmental Problems
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employment and educational opportunities in
rural settlements. Full advantage must be taken
Cities, towns and rural settlements are linked of the complementary contributions and linkages
through the movements of goods, resources and of rural and urban areas by balancing their
people. Urban-rural linkages are of crucial different economic, social and environmental
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importance for the sustainability of human requirements.
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is
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EXERCISES
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1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below.
(i) Which one of the following forms of settlement develops along either side of
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settlement?
(a) primary (c) secondary
(b) tertiary (d) quaternary
(iii) In which of the following regions has the oldest well-documented urban
settlement found?
(a) Huang He Valley (c) Nile Valley
(b) Indus Valley (d) Mesopotamia
(iv) How many of the following cities in India have attained the million status at the
beginning of 2006?
tt
(a) 40 (c) 41
(b) 42 (d) 43
(v) Sufficiency of which type of resources can help to create adequate social
infrastructure catering to the needs of the large population in the developing
no
countries?
(a) financial (c) natural
(b) human (d) social
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(ii) Discuss the problems associated with urban settlements in
developing countries.
Project/Activity
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(i) Do you live in a city? If not, do you live nearby? Is your life
somehow linked to a city?
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(a) What is its name?
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(b) When was it first settled?
(c) Why was the site chosen?
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(e) What are the functions it performs?
(f) On a sketch of the city, try to identify the areas where
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these functions are performed.
Each student should make a list of five things associated with the selected city;
things that cannot be found elsewhere. This is a mini definition of the city as each
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student sees it. The lists should be shared with the class. How much agreement is
there between the lists?
(ii) Can you think of some ways by which you can single
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