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Evolution, Origin & Growth of Settlements
Evolution, Origin & Growth of Settlements
The Common
Habitat and Onset
of Civilization
Man as Nomad & Cave Dweller
• No permanent settlements.
• Learned to build huts and • Some of the earliest settlements began to take shape.
mud houses. • Settlements then consisted of groups of houses built by the side of
agricultural fields, a shrine and a burial ground.
• Some inhabitants continued to live in caves and wander around for
hunting animals - more as a pastime rather than as a necessity
The Common Habitat and
Onset of Civilization
• Inhabitants as a community
under a recognized leader.
RURAL ADVANTAGES:
RURAL DISADVANTAGES:-
URBAN ADVANTAGES:-
URBAN DISADVANTAGES:-
1. More crime.
2. Pollution: more people, more waste, more noise,
less trees and Nature, etc.
3. Impersonal and sometimes isolating.
4. Clear distinction between social classes.
POPULATION DENSITY TRANSPORTATION ECONOMY
NETWORK
The U.S. Census Bureau defines Urban areas are dependent on a
urban settlements as areas with Rural transportation networks global economy of import and
more than 50,000 people and at consist of local and county roads export, whereas rural economies
least 1,000 people per square with limited interconnectivity to rely on a local and agricultural-
mile; including contiguous rail and bus lines. based economy with
census tracts or blocks with at dependencies on services, such
least 500 people per square Urban settlements contain as hospitals and educational
mile. highway infrastructure as well as establishments in nearby urban
airports and light or heavy centres.
In contrast, rural settlements commuter rail.
contain less than 2,500 people,
at a density between one and
999 people per square mile.
• The relationship between rural and • Rural folks and those in the urban areas
urban areas cannot be belittled or have intensively different ways, and each
ignored, no matter how insignificant of them is at their own level of
the interaction may seem to be. civilization.
Needless to say, both rural and urban
• Comparative analysis of such distinct
areas constitute some functional
settings becomes relatively difficult,
elements that make life what it is in bearing in mind that the milestones used
any given region.
for benchmarking the developmental
• Cities, as we have seen, cannot survive progress for urban setting are slightly or
alone, neither can the countryside even intensively different.
achieve much without some support
• For example, for urbanites, financial
from the cities.
development means more to them than
• Cities for example, need the human to rural folks, the reason being that
resource or labour that comes from urban dwellers live all their lives
the rural areas, while the rural areas according to their financial power. In
on the other hand need the financial rural areas on the other hand, life can be
capital support that they derive from managed through a number of
the cities (Ravinder, 2009 p. 1). approaches.
CLIMATE CULTURAL
TOPOGRAPHY ECONOMIC
RESOURCES RELIGIOUS
GEOGRAPHY ADMINISTRATI
VE
POLITICAL
• Conurbation/metropolitan area – a supercity consisting of multiple cities and towns. The population is usually
several million.
• Large City – a city with a large population and many services. The population is >1 million people.
• City – a city would have abundant services, but not as many as a large city. The population of a city is over
100,000 people.
• Village – a village generally does not have many services, possibly only a small corner shop or post office. A
village has a population of 100 to 1,000.
• Hamlet – a hamlet has a tiny population (<100) and very few (if any) services, and few buildings.
• Isolated dwelling – an isolated dwelling would only have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it. It would have
negligible services, if any.