1.5 - Settlement patterns and service provision Flashcards
What is a settlement?
a place where people live
Name and describe the 3 patterns of settlement:
-dispersed (dotted around)
-linear (along a road)
-nucleated (clustered around a centre)
Suggest why a settlement might grow in a linear pattern:
-presence of roads/rivers
-land for nucleated growth is restricted by high land/valleys
What is the site of a settlement? What are the 2 types of sites?
-the actual land the settlement was built upon
greenfield - new unused land
brownfield - redeveloped land that had a previous use
What is the situation of a settlement?
where the settlement is in relation to other surrounding features (eg presence/distance of other settlements, transport routes, rivers)
What is meant by the function of a settlement?
refers to a settlement’s main activities (eg tourist, cultural, industrial), which relates to its economic/social development
Most settlements are multifunctional, and can change over time
What is a settlement hierarchy? Draw one:
a list of settlements ranked in order of population size
Name 3 reasons for why settlements are in a hierarchy:
-size (in terms of area and population)
-range/number of services available
-their sphere of influence
What is a sphere of influence, and how does this relate to range?
-the area surrounding a settlement/shop/service that is affected by its activities
-having a larger SOI means it has a larger range
-range is the maximum distance a customer is prepared to travel to a settlement/shop/service
Explain the key differences between urban and rural areas:
-urban settlements are higher order settlements in cities, with built up areas and offering high and low order services/goods
-rural settlements are lower order settlements in the countryside, offering only low order services/goods
Settlements higher up the hierarchy are referred to high order, and lower down as low order
What are high order services/goods? Give some examples:
-expensive and bought less frequently, where quality/price is often compared with others before purchasing
-TVs, cars, jewellery
The comparison aspect of high order goods is grouped separately, and is named a comparison good, and comes somewhere inbetween low and high order
What are low order services/goods? Give some examples:
-cheap, frequently bought goods, and people wouldn’t travel far to buy them
-bread, milk, vegetables
What is a threshold population?
minimum number of people required by a shop selling goods/services to make a profit
Usually lower order services have a lower threshold population
State 4 characteristics of a low order service:
-small threshold population/SOI/range
-found in settlements of all size
-sells low order goods
-used frequently
Give some characteristics of services provided in a high order settlement:
-large threshold population/SOI/range
-more specialist over convenience services
-larger (+in large shopping centres)
-more advanced/sophisticated
