Urban Settlement Patterns

Lesson Date Focus Due date for work to your

teacher
Lesson 1 Global settlement patterns and Tuesday, 12/5/2020
Monday, 11/5/2020 density
Period 3

Lesson 2 Patterns of concentration Wednesday, 13/5/2020

Tuesday, 12/5/2020
Period 1

Lesson 3 Australia’s settlement patterns Friday, 15/5/2020

Thursday, 14/5/2020
Period 1

Lesson 4 Factors affecting settlement in Tuesday, 19/5/2020

Monday, 18/5/2020 Australia
Period 5

Lesson 5 Settlement Patterns in the USA Wednesday, 20/5/2020

Tuesday, 19/5/2020
Period 5

Lesson 6 How do settlements affect the Thursday, 21/5/2020

Wednesday, 20/5/2020 places we live?
Period 5
Lesson 7 Investigate an urban settlement. Friday, 22/5/2020
Thursday, 21/5/2020
Period 6

BONUS ACTIVITY Design your ultimate city or town. Friday, 22/5/2020

Any time
Lesson 1 – Monday, 11/5/2020 – Period 3
Work due: Tuesday, 12/5/2020

Topic: Global settlement patterns

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Image: Random graphic I found to brighten up the page.

Text: World population density

Read the text below to help respond to the questions.
There are over 7 billion people living on Earth – but where do they live?
This map shows where people live in the world as a measure of population density (the
number of people living per 1 km2).
The darker the shading means there is a higher density. The lighter the shading means a
lower density of people in the area.
A map that uses shading (dark to light) to show how frequent something occurs is known as
a choropleth map.
Questions
Respond to the questions by choosing the best answer e.g. circle or highlight.
1. Density can be measured by:
a. How often people live together
b. The total number of people in an area
c. The number of people per 1 km2
d. The number of people per 2 km2
2. Areas in Asia (north of Australia) are shaded in dark reds, this means:
a. There is a higher density of people living in Asian countries
b. There is a lower density of people living in Asian countries
c. There is a similar density of people in Asia and Australia
d. All people live in Asian countries
3. A map that uses colour shading to show density or the frequency is known as:
a. A topographic map
b. A choropleth map
c. A symbol map
d. A cadastral map
4. There are very few people who live in central Australia and North Africa shown by
white or light-yellow colours. Which reason best explains why:
a. Employment – too many job opportunities
b. Climate – too hot and dry
c. Social – too many neighbours living close by
d. Environmental – too many sharks
Illustrative example: extremes of density
If you can, watch the video about Dharavi a slum in the middle of Mumbai, located in India.
This video goes for about 50 minutes – you do not need to watch the whole thing.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mQbo9ZTjEs

Video summary:
 Dharavi is slum containing over 1 million people living in less than 1km2
 Many homes are made of rubbish on the outer edges of the slum, inside the main
area homes look a little more formal.
 One family of 6 people sleep in the same room. The is one bed for the mother, the
rest of the family sleep on the floor. This room also doubles as a kitchen and living
room.
 Problems that Dharavi faces include: privacy, sanitation (waste removal), health
such as respiratory issues.
 Many people live their whole lives in the slums, but some make a good living. One
millionaire makes his fortune by recycling plastics in a type of factory. Other
people pick through the city’s garbage dump to look for straws.
An aerial photograph of Dharavi Children play in garbage

Activity:
Complete the senses table below to describe what you think living in a slum like Dharavi
might be like

Smells like Looks like Feels like Sounds like

What do you think What do you think What do you think What do you think
you might smell you might see there? you might feel there? you might hear
there? there?
Lesson 2 – Tuesday, 12/5/2020 – Period 1
Work due: Wednesday, 13/5/2020

Topic: Patterns of concentration

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Image: Circular suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Key terms
Read the key terms and definitions in the table below to help complete the activity.

Key term Definition

Nucleated urban settlement a town or city where people live clustered together, often
around a central point. This usually occurs on flat areas of
land.
 Linear urban settlement settlement that occurs along a main road or major
transportation route such as a highway.

Dispersed urban settlement often called rural, where people live on farms scattered in
an area with space between. This also occurs in high land
areas.

Isolated settlements remote areas where one or very few people live, with
long distances between other settlements.

Activity: Classifying patterns of concentration

Label each set of images in the table below as either nucleated, linear or dispersed.
Text and Diagram: Functions of settlements
Read the text and view the diagram to help respond to the questions below.
Different types of urban concentrations fall into a hierarchy (an order).
Small urban concentrations such as villages do not have a large population and therefore
often do not have many functions. They offer the basics such as a doctor, post office and
maybe a school. They may not have large shopping areas or hospitals, because the
population does not support them (not enough customers).
Larger urban concentrations such as towns and cities, due to their larger populations, have
higher order (more complex) or more variety in their functions. They may have more shops,
bigger schools or universities, and even political power in the form of local, state or national
governments sitting in them.
The large the urban concentration, the more power or influence it has over other urban
areas. For example, Sydney is often confused as Australia’s capital city. This is because it has
more businesses, a larger population and more cultural services and is often more well-
known than Canberra because of this. Sydney is known as a primate city because of this
dominance.

Questions
Write your responses in the space below each question
 1. What functions does Broken Hill play? THINK: is it similar to a Village, Town or City?

2. Can you think of an urban settlement near Broken Hill that could be categorised as a
town or village? THINK: what smaller towns might Broken Hill have influence over.

3. Is Broken Hill an example of linear, nucleated or dispersed settlement?

Illustrative example: Extremes of rural decline – Country Town Rescue

If you can, watch the following video or read the video summary to help respond to the
question below.
This is a TV series lasting about 6 hours – you only need to watch the first episode to get the
idea, however, it is very interesting so you might get hooked.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EgxNiWIgtcE&list=PLGhc2HhtTuk6U41S0yCT561NOuNaaNuVY
 Video summary:
 Trundle is a small rural town in the middle of NSW and is based around wheat and
sheep farming.
 There are less than 500 people in Trundle and the population is continuing to
decline. This occurred due to ongoing drought and many farmers selling up and
walking off the land.
 After the population dropped, businesses such as banks, butchers, the ambulance
closed up because there was too small a population to keep the businesses alive.
 The community of Trundle decided to try and turn the trend around by renting out
farmhouses for $1 a week to families and rebuild the population. This was known
as the “Trundle Tree Change Project”
 Thousands of people applied from all over Australia.

Question
Respond in the space below the question.
1. Explain the effects of rural decline on a settlement.
Lesson 3 – Thursday, 14/5/2020 – Period 1
Work due: Friday, 15/5/2020

Topic: Australia’s settlement patterns

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Cartoon reads: 2050, Welcome to outer North Melbourne.

Text: Where do Australian’s live?

Read the text to help you respond to the activity.

3 facts about Australia’s population settlement patterns.

FACT 1 – Over 85% of Australian’s live within 50km of the coastline.
FACT 2 – This ribbon of settlement around the coastal fringe is on low flat land.
 FACT 3 – About half of Australia’s population live within 3 capital cities: Sydney,
Melbourne and Brisbane.

Activity: Sketch to stretch

Draw a visual image of one of the 3 facts in the text above. For example, you might draw
Fact 1 as a map, or Fact 3 as a Pie graph.

Video: The Australian continent

If you can, watch the video or read the video summary and respond to the questions below.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quNdaS895gE

Video summary:
 Australia is an island continent in the southern and eastern hemispheres.
 The arid interior or outback is mostly desert and not inhabited, however, mining
occurs here and adds money to the economy.
 The south-eastern corridor hosts 3 capital cities and most of Australia’s population
due to the fertile land and temperate climate (not too hot and not too cold).
 The Murray-Darling Basin is the agricultural heartland of Australia where most
crops are grown.

Australia’s arid (dry) interior. The South Eastern corridor

Questions
Respond to the questions below by writing your response below the question or circling the
correct option.
1. What percentage of Australian’s do not live within 50km of the coastline?

2. Which capital cities in Australia are the most populous? THINK: which have the
largest population sizes.

3. Which term has a similar meaning to the word arid: Dry or Humid?

4. What is a pull factor for people living in arid areas of Australia? (multiple choice)
a. Education opportunities
b. Employment opportunities
c. Climatic trends
d. Social isolation

Text: Distribution maps

Read the text and view the maps to help respond to the questions.
The two maps below are called distribution or dot maps. Each dot represents a particular
number of the feature being mapped. For example, on the maps below one dot is equal to
500 or 1000 people.
These types of maps are used to show a visual representation (a picture) of a spatial pattern
(how people are spread out across a space e.g. Australia).
 1 dot = 500 people 1 dot = 1000 people
Population Population
distribution from 1950 distribution from 2000

Questions
Respond to the questions below by writing your response in the space below each question.
1. Shade areas on both of the maps where there are a lot of people living close together
green and the rest yellow, then highlight the capital cities in red.

2. Is there an even or uneven distribution of people across Australia? Explain your answer.

3. In which states or territories are most people living?

4. What are some of the reasons people would choose to live near the coast? THINK: why
were you asked to colour the densely populated areas green?

5. Who do you think is living in the remote, inland areas of Australia?

6. Has Australia’s population increased or decreased in the 50 year period? How can you
tell?

7. What are some of the advantages of these types of maps? THINK: what do they show
well.

8. What are some of the disadvantages of these types of maps? THINK: what don’t they
show well.
Lesson 4 – Monday, 18/5/2020 – Period 5
Work due: Tuesday, 19/5/2020

Topic: Factors affecting settlement in Australia

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Image: Most iconic street in Australia – prize for first to guess its name.

Text: What can influence settlement?

Read the text below to help respond to the activity
Remember this fact from the previous lesson?
Over 85% of Australian’s live within 50km of the coastline.
This is to do with historical, climate, economic and cultural reasons.

 Historical reasons include transportation options when Europeans settled Australia

 Climate reasons include the warm and moist climate that is found in the south-east
 Economic reasons include the jobs on offer in the large cities
 Cultural reasons include the love of the beach many Australians have
Other factors that influence where Australians live include topography (the shape of the
land), distance or remoteness, services and facilities such as hospitals, schools and
entertainment.
An example of how topography plays a role in determining settlement is the location on
Canberra, the national capital. When deciding where the new capital city should be located,
Eden on far south coast of NSW was an option. It was roughly half way between Sydney and
Melbourne, had a deep ocean port, and relatively unsettled at that point in time. It was
decided against, not only because Sydney would have lost money from the use of the new
port, but also the at times steep topography around the area.

Activity: Reasons for Australia’s settlement pattern

Match the reason for Australia’s settlement to the evidence in the table below.

Reasons for Australia’s settlement patterns:

 Cultural
 Climatic
 Economic
 Historical
200 years ago, people travelling to or trading with Australia did
this by boat. Most of Australia’s capital cities are close to water.
Bonus fact: The ACT has a coastline and a port.
Places in Central Australia are often very hot in the middle of the
day reaching up to 40° C, but can also be freezing cold at night.
These areas can also be very dry.
 Limited job opportunities are available in regional or remote
areas, whereas in large coastal cities, many jobs are on offer due
to the location of businesses.
Australians like to swim, surf and dive in the waters off the coast.
Many national holidays are celebrated by going to the beach,
having a BBQ and enjoying the ocean views.

Activity: What influences your settlement choices?

Use the table below to find out which location you might like to live, then respond to the
question below.

Let’s see your preferences for where would suit you to live in Australia. Here is a table which
compares two variables and gives suggestions about where you could live in Australia to suit
your tastes.
The two variables are climate/temperature and density (the number of people living in a
certain area).

Isolated Large City

Small to Medium
very small very large
Town
population population
(medium density)
(low density) (high density)

Cool to Warm King Island, TAS Hobart, TAS Melbourne, VIC

Warm Trundle, NSW Kalgoorlie, WA Sydney, NSW

Warm to Hot Broome, WA Darwin, NT Brisbane, QLD

Questions:
Respond to the questions by writing your answer in the space below each question
1. Which what city or town did you choose, and which variables did you use?
 2. Which urban settlement is hot and isolated?

3. Which urban settlement is cool and medium density?

Skills activity: Interpreting a map

Use the source below to respond to the questions.

Paths of major Tropical Cyclones

Questions
1. Is Broken Hill at risk of experiencing many Tropical Cyclones?

2. Which capital cities are more likely to be affected by Tropical Cyclones?

3. Do you think Source B is helpful in deciding whether to live in areas of Australia?

Why/why not?
Lesson 5 – Tuesday, 19/5/2020 – Period 5
Work due: Day, Date

Topic: Urban Settlement in the USA

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and activities
when prompted.

Image: Photographer, Christoph Gielen, documents America’s suburbs from above.

Text: USA, USA, USA!

Read the text and view the map to help respond to the question below.

The modern country of the USA has a lot of similarities (and differences) to Australia. When
European settlers expanded across the continent and created towns and cities, this was largely due
to a few main factors: access to water, natural resources such as gold and the limitations of the
physical environment such as deserts and mountains.
Unlike Australia, the USA has more reliable river systems within the interior of the country,
providing better access to water supplies. This means that each state has its own relatively large
city, even those landlocked (surrounded by land and no coastline) states.
Similar to Australia, the USA has a large central desert region, however, large cities has been
created even in these arid climates. A famous example is Las Vegas. This is due to enormous efforts
to redirect water to these locations to sustain the settlements, which wouldn’t be possible without
the infrastructure bringing the water.
Even though there are cities across the country, there are still regions without many people. The
map below shows the density of the population.
The following colours are used in the Key for the population density:
0-1 (white)
1-4 (yellow)
5-9 (yellow-green)
10-24 (green)
25-49 (teal)
Questions
Refer to the text and both maps to respond to these questions. Write your responses in the
space below each question.

1. What type of map is the following? (HINT: it uses light and darker shades of a colour
to show the frequency or density)

2. Using the map showing the physical geography of the USA (below), what natural
features have influenced the USA’s settlement patterns?
Text: Urban suburbanisation and urban sprawl
Read the text to help respond to the question below.
Suburbanisation is something America is well known for – seemingly endless suburbs of
residential houses that extend into the distance. We often see these in movies where homes
are built like cookie cutter forms and all look the same. This is often done because of
developers, who find it cheaper to offer limited design choices, and homeowners
associations maintain rules of how people can change their homes e.g. paint colours. The
suburbs, no matter how bland they might look, house about half of the country’s
population.
Suburbanisation is the planned development of new suburbs which have infrastructure
planned along side it. Infrastructure can be transport networks such as road and rail, social
infrastructure such as parks, hospitals and cultural centres.
So, are America’s endless suburbs well planned or something to be ashamed of?
Some urban planners believe that they are examples of urban sprawl. This is the continuous
building of residential suburbs without the needed infrastructure. This leads to problems
such as congestion on roads, long travel times and poor access to services (long wait times
at hospitals). This adds to the stress of everyday living and can even cause disadvantage
where some people have well resourced suburbs and others are left without.

Question
Respond in the space below the question.
1. Why is suburbanisation, the planning of suburbs, important?
Lesson 6 – Wednesday, 20/5/2020 – Period 5
Work due: Thursday, 21/5/2020

Topic: How do settlements affect the places we live?

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Image: Beijing, China – with extreme levels of air pollution, and without.

Text: Environmental pressures

Read the text and watch the video to help respond to the activity below.
The development of settlements such as towns and cities can place a toll on the
environment. Humans take resources from the environment to build their homes, but also
clear vegetation and habitats in the process.
Even after settlements are built there is ongoing negative impacts to the environment. Air
pollution from cars, pollution from garbage and heat building up in cities due to the metal
and concrete that buildings are made from.
One example of a large polluting city is Beijing in China. People who live in Beijing use apps
on their phones and other devices to see if it is safe to go outside. Many people use masks
to help breathe when moving around outdoors. Some schools are under bubbles, including
the playground to prevent students from breathing the outside air. This is caused by
industry and cars.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn8N23_7FUU

Video summary:
 The building industry uses a lot of natural resources to make homes for human
habitation.
 Some of the costs to the environment include the destruction of forests for
building materials themselves, but also for the space to build homes.
 Habitats are also destroyed, leaving some animals with no home.
 Sealed roads divert water into drains and not into the soil or being used by trees.
 Local water sources such as creeks and streams are often polluted.
 Energy use rises causing more gasses in the atmosphere.
 Motor vehicle use, particularly if the new suburb is far away from other urban
areas, rises causing a rise in more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Question
Respond in the space below the question.
1. Identify TWO ways we could reduce the impact on the environment from building
settlements.

Cartoon
View the cartoon to
help respond to the
questions below.
Questions
Respond in the space below the questions.
1. What message do you think the cartoonist is trying to communicate in the cartoon?

2. Do you see any similarities between this cartoon and Broken Hill? Explain.
Lesson 7 – Thursday, 21/5/2020 – Period 6
Work due: Friday, 22/5/2020

Topic: Investigate an urban settlement.

To complete this topic, you should read the stimulus and respond to the questions and
activities when prompted.

Activity: create a Class Google Slide presentation which identifies and describes some of the
largest urban settlements in the world.
For your designated urban settlement you must:

 Identify the urban settlement

 Provide each of the following:

o Population size (number of people)

o Country it is in and absolute location of the capital city (latitude and

longitude)
o Continent it is located in

 Include TWO captioned picture which best illustrate the size of the city and/or living
conditions

 Outline FOUR interesting facts about your urban settlement

Possible cities you could investigate include

Lagos Paris Tokyo Sao Paulo

Mogadishu Berlin Manila Rio de Janeiro
Cairo Amsterdam Bangkok Melbourne
Johannesburg London Beijing Christchurch
Addis Ababa Venice Beirut Lima
Dubai Budapest Jakarta Bogota
Tel Aviv Prague Seoul Mexico City
Kinshasa Moscow Mumbai Santiago
Ankara Baghdad Ho Chi Minh City Guatemala City
BONUS ACTIVITY
This is an extension activity if you complete your work throughout Module 2.
For example, If you finish the work in Lesson 1 early and have spare time in your timetabled
period you can start work on this activity.

Activity: Design your ultimate city or town.

Make a map of a city you would like to live in.

Step 1: Make a list of the types of natural resources you will need to include and the local
landscape e.g. coastal or inland.
Step 2: Make a list of the services you may need in your town such as the basics like shops
and transport, but any other higher order functions.
Step 3: Make a list of the types of buildings such as residential, commercial, public buildings
you will need in your town.
Step 4: Decide how you will layout your town. You could think about the settlement pattern.
Step 5: Start creating your map.