TOWN PLANNING
Locational factors of settlements
(Samreen Sultan)
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BASIC DEFINITIONS?
Settlement
These are places where People
live
Site
The physical land on which the
settlement was built on
Situation
The settlement in relation to its
surroundings
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Settlement Sites?
A settlement is a collection of buildings
where people live.
They vary in size from small hamlets to
large cities.
Site & Situation
Site refers to the physical place upon which
settlements are built.
Situation refers to the location of the
settlement in relation to other important
features e.g. close to resources, or between
two hills.
There are many factors that
can influence where
settlements locate within a
region. The site of a
settlement is the actual land
that the settlements is built
upon.
The situation is the location of
a settlement in relation to the
things that are around it.
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What factors made people decide on a site to locate their settlement?
Settlements were built in sheltered areas such
as valleys or in bays on coastal locations.
Aspect (the direction in which a settlement
faces) was also an important consideration.
Settlements would be more ideally located on
south-facing slopes in the Northern
Hemisphere and on north-facing slopes in the
Southern Hemisphere .
ASPECT AND SHELTER
For example, in Britain, it was an advantage
to be sheltered from cold winds blowing from
the north, and to be facing south which
meant more sunlight.
Aspect and shelter Northern Hemisphere sun
is in the south settlements on south-facing
slopes receive more heat and sunlight S N
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Physical factors that influence the location
of a settlement include:
[Link] supply – settlements need water, they often locate
on wet point sites for this. Settlements built away from rivers and
water supplies to avoid flooding are located at dry point sites.
[Link] – building on high ground allowed people the chance
to look out for enemies (e.g. Edinburgh castle) while surrounding
a settlement with water also helped with deed defence e.g.
Durham is built inside a meander.
[Link] and shelter – In the northern hemisphere south facing
slopes receive more sunlight and are protected from cold
Northerly winds. More settlements and agricultural land is
therefore located on South facing slopes.
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RESOURCES
Resources Fertile Soil
Resources Clay soils
Resources Iron Ore
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The economic factors include;
Communications – settlements often located next to rivers that could be easily crossed. These are
called bridging points. Other favourable places included where at the junctions of valleys or in gaps
through hills. These locations allowed maximum communication between different settlements and
increased trade. E.g. Newcastle is built on the Tyne at a bridging point and could benefit with trade
from the North and the South.
Resources - Early settlers relied upon wood for fuel and building. A site close to woodland was there
fore an advantage. Later, resources such as Iron ore, coal and bauxite encouraged the growth of
settlements.
There are 3 different shapes of settlement according to the arrangement of buildings within them;
Linear settlements grow in a line, often along roads, river valleys or the coast.
Nucleated settlements have buildings grouped close
together and are found at cross roads or are used for
defence purposes.
Dispersed settlements have individual
buildings spread out, and are often found in rural areas. 12
Look at the map of Longtown.
Describe its site and situation.
List all of the reasons why this settlement is located here.
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As you move up the hierarchy, the size of the settlement and the distance between similar sized
settlements increases. As you can see from the diagram below, there are more cities than conurbations,
more towns than cities and more villages than towns.
The number of services that a settlement provides increases with settlement size.
Small settlements will only provide low-order services such as a post offices, doctors and newsagents. Large
towns, cities and conurbations will provide low and high-order services such as leisure centres, chain stores
and hospitals.
Larger settlements and conurbations have a much larger sphere of influence than smaller ones. This
means they attract people from a wider area because of the facilities they offer. Cities such as Paris have a
global sphere of influence, whereas a small hamlet or village may only have a sphere of influence of a couple
of kilometres.
Services such as department stores selling high order goods have a higher threshold than those selling low
order goods such as newsagents. This means they need a higher number of people to support them and
make them profitable, therefore they will only be found in larger settlements. It also means that there are
fewer big department stores than small newsagents.
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These are just some of the Physical Factors that early settlers would have thought about to chose a site for
their settlement. But do physical factors influence the site of a settlement today?
Think about how humans have adapted their environment, do we need to be near our food & water supplies?
Do we need to be near a source of fuel?
Do we need to live near the company we work for?
What are the new factors of location that influence the choice of a settlements site. Come with your own
ideas!!
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THANK YOU
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