DBE Geography Paper 2: Rural and Urban Settlements

Vocabulary flashcards covering Paper 2 core concepts in rural and urban settlement geography based on the DBE examination guidelines.

Settlement

A place or grouping of buildings where people live and carry out various economic and social activities, classified broadly into rural and urban categories.

Site

The exact physical ground or piece of land on which a settlement is built, characterized by features such as slope, soil, water availability, and drainage.

Situation

The location of a settlement in relation to surrounding natural and human features, such as transport routes, other settlements, and regional resources.

Settlement Pattern

The spatial layout or distribution arrangement of buildings and dwellings within a settlement, commonly categorized as nucleated or dispersed.

Settlement Function

The primary economic, social, or administrative activities and purpose performed by a settlement for its residents and surrounding areas.

Round Settlement

A rural settlement shape characterized by buildings arranged around a central communal area, green, kraal, or water body.

Linear Settlement

A rural settlement shape that develops in a narrow line along a physical or transport feature, such as a road, river, coastline, or railway.

Crossroad Settlement

A rural settlement shape that develops at the intersection or junction of two or more roads.

T-shape Settlement

A rural settlement shape formed at a road junction where one road terminates at a right angle into another road.

Rural Land Use

The allocation and utilisation of land in rural areas, specifically identified in settlement studies as farming, forestry, and conservation.

Rural-Urban Migration

The movement of people from the countryside or rural settlements to cities and urban settlements, driven by push and pull factors.

Push Factors

Negative conditions in rural areas (such as poverty, unemployment, drought, or lack of services) that encourage or compel people to leave.

Pull Factors

Positive conditions or perceived opportunities in urban areas (such as job prospects, better healthcare, education, and amenities) that attract rural migrants.

Rural Depopulation

A continuous decrease in the population of rural areas caused primarily by the outward migration of people to towns and cities.

Land Tenure

A branch of land reform concerned with securing legal rights, protection, and conditions under which people occupy and use land.

Land Redistribution

A branch of land reform aimed at providing historically disadvantaged and poor communities with access to residential and agricultural land.

Land Restitution

A branch of land reform aimed at restoring land ownership or providing financial compensation to individuals or communities dispossessed of their land by racially discriminatory laws.

Urbanisation

The increase in the proportion or percentage of a total population living in urban areas relative to rural areas.

Urban Growth

The absolute increase in the total number of people residing in urban settlements over a given period.

Urban Expansion

The physical, spatial spread and outward enlargement of the built-up urban environment.

Urban Sprawl

The rapid, unplanned, and uncontrolled outward horizontal spread of urban development into surrounding rural land.

Rate of Urbanisation

The speed or annual percentage increase at which an urban population proportion is growing over time.

Level of Urbanisation

The overall percentage of a country's or region's total population that lives in urban settlements at a specific point in time.

Counter-Urbanisation

The process whereby people, households, and businesses move away from large urban centers into smaller towns or rural areas.

Central Place

An urban settlement that primarily provides goods, urban services, and functions to the population of the surrounding rural hinterland.

Break-of-Bulk Point

A trade and transport town situated where freight or transport mode changes (e.g., from ship to rail or road), requiring cargo to be offloaded and subdivided.

Junction Town

A trade and transport town that develops at the convergence or crossing of major transport routes, such as railway junctions or intersecting highways.

Gateway Town (Gap Town)

A trade and transport settlement located at a natural physical passage or entrance point through a barrier, such as a mountain pass or bridge point.

Specialised Town

An urban settlement whose development, function, and economy are centered overwhelmingly on one specific activity, such as mining, administration, education, or recreation.