A revision guide for GCSE Geography

1. AEB 2007 A revision guide for GCSE Geography

2. Settlement – the place where people live

3. How to use this Settlement Revision Lesson Click on the topic of your choice on the following slide Read through the animated section to the end Then choose either to return to the main menu and choose another topic, or exit and try a quiz. Finally look at the example GCSE questions on Settlement and have a go at being an examiner!

5. Settlement Site and Situation Key words and definitions Settlement site – The place a settlement is located Settlement situation – The settlements location in relation to its surroundings Rural – Countryside Urban – Built up area

6. The location of settlements involves the study of both site and situation of different settlement types.

7. Historically settlement locations were chosen because they offered either good access to raw materials or were easy to defend.

9. Another example of a settlement site is the spring line settlement.

10. Original site factors can be grouped as follows To be near a water supply To be safe from areas that flood To be a good place to defend To be near materials they could use for building, food, or to make things To have good access to other places To have shelter from bad weather To have a supply of fuel for cooking and warmth.

12. The following table looks at factors that influence the location of settlements

13. Although these site factors are less important today you can often still find evidence of what they might have been. A common type of GCSE question on this topic is to use an OS map to look for likely features that may have lead to the development of a settlement at a certain site. – The next page gives you some possible points you could look for…

15. Settlement patterns over an area

16. When describing a settlement you need to remember these key points.. A settlement can be permanent or temporary The site of the settlement would have been chosen by the settlers who would have been looking for one or more important features The piece of land the settlement is built on is the settlement site The situation of a settlement is its position in relation to the human and physical features around it. Try to refer to the relief of the land, the vegetation and any important physical features eg. a river as these may give you clues as to what the original site factors might have been.

17. That completes this section on Settlement site and situation

18. Settlement Hierarchy and Function

19. Here are some useful definitions Sphere of influence – The region that a settlement can attract people from Function – The type of services offered by a settlement High order – Expensive and less frequently used goods and services Low order – Less expensive but more frequently used goods and services Threshold population – The number of people needed to support a particular function

20. Settlements can be ranked in order of their size and number. This is called a settlement hierarchy.

21. These different settlements will differ in terms of size population and function. Capital city Major city City Town Village Hamlet

22. However they will decrease in number Capital city Major city City Town Village Hamlet

23. Settlement Function The term function describes what a settlement originally did or still does. It can be the purpose that the settlement was built for, but also relates to any later development and refers to its main activity. Look at the following diagram to see examples of this.

26. Services Hamlets often have no services except a phone box or post box. A village has a limited range of essential low order services Large towns and cities have a wide range of high order services. People usually have to travel further to use high order services.

27. Central Place Theory

29. That completes this section on settlement hierarchy and function

30. Growth and Decline of cities

31. Important terms Urbanisation – process of increasing proportion of the population becoming town or city dwellers Deurbanisation – The movement of people out of cities to rural areas Reurbanisation – Regrowth of cities often due to urban renewal Greenbelt – area around cities designed to stop urban sprawl

32. Urbanisation This is the increase in the proportion of people living in towns or cities compared to rural areas. As a country becomes more industrial people move to towns and cities to look for work. MEDCs tend to have high levels of urbanisation.

33. Urbanisation is taking place on a global scale 100 years ago only about 10% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. Today this has risen to about 47% and is still rising.

34. Millionaire cities A millionaire city is one with a population of over one million people. There are over 280 millionaire cities in the world, most of these are in LEDCs. Some cities are ‘mega-cities’ – have over ten million inhabitants e.g. Mexico City, Tokyo

35. Causes of urbanisation Large scale rural to urban migration – often in search of a better life (however this is often not the case) Population increase – tends to be faster in urban areas

36. Problems of urbanisation Spontaneous settlements (shanty towns) – found in many LEDC cities. Badly built without basic amenities. Overcrowding ? pressure on services, health care, water, waste disposal etc. Some LEDCs are trying to solve these problems with self help schemes.

37. Other problems Too much traffic Unemployment Pollution – land, water and noise

38. Urbanisation can lead to Urban Sprawl If a city is allowed to grow it takes up more and more of the surrounding area. Green belts are put in place to stop this. A conurbation is formed if a city grows so much it swallows up towns into one large urban area.

39. Deurbanisation (or counter urbanisation) Caused when people decide to move back out from the urban to the rural environment because of these problems.

40. Deurbanisation is possible because: Growth and better transport and communications (don’t have to live where you work) Government policies – encourage such a move People with more money to own a second home

41. Counter urbanisation can have an effect on the villages people move to…

42. Re-urbanisation Cities can be regenerated to encourage people to move back. Often encourage the renewal of brownfield sites (old derelict land).

43. Example of Regeneration - London Docklands Regeneration of derelict land in London Built new roads, the Dockland Light railway and London City airport New offices e.g. Canary Wharf Created many new jobs Built new homes and shops Planted over 100,000 trees.

44. That completes this section on the growth and decline of cities

45. Settlement Land Use

46. Urban Land Use in MEDCs – Burgess Model – concentric zone model

48. Urban Land Use in MEDCs - Hoyt Model – sector model

50. Land use in the Central Business District Competition for land makes land prices high in the CBD. The CBD contains the main retail and commercial premises, major public buildings and administrative headquarters. Shops selling high order goods and high rise buildings are here, but few people live here. As competition for land is highest here land prices are high. This leads to many high-rise buildings where each piece of land can be used several times.

51. Urban Land Use in LEDC cities

53. The Doughnut effect

54. That completes this section on Settlement Land Use

55. Thank you for using this revision tool to help with your studies of Settlement.