Settlement Geography Lecture Notes

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts of rural and urban settlement geography, including patterns, functions, and land use.

Settlement

A grouping of people, activities and buildings consisting of an infrastructure where buildings occur and social and economic activities happen.

Site

The actual place where a settlement is found.

Situation

The location of a settlement in relation to its surrounding environment and other places.

Rural settlement

A small, unifunctional settlement with a small population generally involved in primary activities such as farming, fishing, forestry, or mining.

Urban settlement

A large, multifunctional settlement with a large population involved in secondary, tertiary, and quaternary activities.

Unifunctional

A term describing a settlement that focuses on one main economic activity, typically primary activities.

Multifunctional

A term describing a settlement that focuses on a wide variety of economic functions, including manufacturing, trade, and research.

Metropolis

A single city that is surrounded by many independent towns.

Conurbation

A continuous urban area formed by the merging together of several large adjoining cities and towns.

Megalopolis

A very large, highly urbanised area made up of several urban places that have merged together to form one continuous built-up area.

Nucleated settlement

A settlement pattern referring to the grouping of many houses around a centre called a nucleus.

Dispersed settlement

A settlement where houses are scattered over a large area, isolated and spaced far apart from each other.

Wet-point settlement

A settlement whose location is determined entirely by the presence of a water source, especially common in dry areas.

Dry-point settlement

A settlement site chosen in an attempt to avoid water because of the danger of flooding, relevant in many wet areas.

Subsistence farming

Small-scale farming done primarily to provide food for the farmer's own family or local community.

Commercial farming

Farming run as a business where capital is used to maximise yield per hectare for profit.

Monoculture

A commercial farming practice where the farmer focuses on growing a single crop.

Intensive commercial farming

Farming where small areas of land are farmed to their maximum potential with a high yield per hectare and high capital or labour investment.

Extensive commercial farming

Large-scale farming on large tracts of land where capital and labour are small in relation to the land area.

Rural-urban migration

The movement of people from rural areas to urban areas.

Rural depopulation

The decline in the population of a rural area.

Urbanisation

The increase in the proportion or percentage of people living in towns and cities.

Ageing population

A demographic trend in rural areas where only the older members of a population remain after others migrate.

Land redistribution

A government policy involving the provision of land to the black majority who cannot afford to buy it, based on the "willing seller/willing buyer" principle.

Land restitution

The return of ancestral land to its original owners or the compensation of those who lost land during the apartheid era.

Land tenure reform

A strategy to secure the rights of people living on land owned by others, protecting labour tenants from eviction.

Urban growth

An increased number of people living in cities.

Urban sprawl

The unplanned and/or uncontrolled spread of the built-up urban environment into rural areas of the countryside next to the city.

Urban hierarchy

The ranking of settlements based on criteria such as size, population, number of functions, and degree of specialization.

Urban profile

The side view of a city, typically showing the tallest buildings in the centre and lower buildings towards the edge.

Urban decay

The process whereby a previously functioning city or part of a city falls into disrepair.

Rural-urban fringe

The area at the very edge of the city beside the countryside, often containing a mixture of functions.

Urban regeneration

A programme designed to improve inner city areas by upgrading housing, building industrial estates, and landscaping.

Central Places

Centrally located, accessible settlements that provide goods and services to the surrounding population or market area.

Break-of-bulk points

Places where one form of transport is exchanged for another form (e.g., from ship to rail).

Gateway towns

Towns located where traffic routes converge, serving as entrances to other places, such as at a bridge, mountain pass, or port.

Gap town

A town located in a valley that is open at both ends.

Threshold population

The minimum number of people required to support a service so that it remains profitable.

Sphere of influence

The area from which a central place draws its customers or people who use its services.

Range of goods

How far people are prepared to travel to get hold of a specific product or service.

Lower-order goods

Generally inexpensive, everyday items and services bought close to home, such as bread or newspapers.

High-order goods

Generally expensive items such as electronic goods or specialist medical care that people are prepared to travel further to obtain.

Urban morphology

Refers to the internal structure and physical aspects of a city, including how it is laid out.

Land use zone

Refers to a type of function or service predominately found in a specific area of an urban settlement.

CBD (Central Business District)

The commercial and business centre of a city, usually located near the centre where land values are highest.

Transition Zone

Also known as the "Twilight Zone," this area around the CBD contains both low-class housing and light manufacturing and is in a state of constant change.

Grid-iron street pattern

A street layout where streets intersect at right angles, typical of older settlements and Central Business Districts.

Radial pattern

A street pattern where all roads lead to a central accessible point.

Facadism

An urban renewal process where the old, original front of a building is retained while a new development is built behind it.

Gentrification

The modernisation and improvement of old houses close to the city centre.

Centripetal forces

Forces that attract and keep people and businesses in the city centre, such as site attraction and functional prestige.

Centrifugal forces

Forces that drive people and businesses away from the city centre towards the suburbs, such as congestion and high rents.

Invasion and succession

An urban renewal process where a new land use replaces an original function in a city area.

Informal settlement

An unplanned residential settlement where people have occupied land illegally and built dwellings (shacks) without basic services.

New towns

Settlements planned from the start on new sites, intended to limit growth problems of large cities and stimulate economic development.