Rural/Urban Settlements

Question 1

urbanisation

Answer 1

increasing the proportion of people living in/around towns and cities over time

Question 2

factors that cause a settlement to grow/shrink (social, economic, political, environmental)

Answer 2

• wider variety of services
• lack/abundance of job opportunities
• increase in tertiary economic activity
• cheaper costs
• change in economic activity
• political/government pressure
• decreasing/increasing services
• major international events
• perception that the quality of life is better
• aging population
• threat from crime, pollution, congestion
• new found wealth
• availability of recreational facilities
• movement of TNCs and MNCs
• counter urbanisation
• climate change
• exhaustion in resources
• footloose people/businesses
• natural disasters

Question 3

factors that cause a rural settlement to grow/shrink

Answer 3

grow:
- cheaper costs
- perception that the quality of life is better
- counter urbanisation
- footloose people/businesses
- aging population
shrink:
- lack of job opportunities
- decreasing services
- climate change
- unavailability of recreational services
- change in economic activity

Question 4

factors that cause a urban settlement to grow/shrink

Answer 4

grow:
- increasing services
- increase in tertiary economic activity
- major international events
- new found wealth
- movement of TNCs and MNCs
shrink:
- political/government pressure
- expensive costs
- threat from crime, pollution, congestion
- lack of job opportunities
- exhaustion in resources
- natural disasters

Question 5

megacity

Answer 5

city with a population greater than 10 million

Question 6

land use - key terms

Answer 6

residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, agricultural, open space

Question 7

urban structure

Answer 7

distribution of types of land use in a town or city

Question 8

urban zones in HICs

Answer 8

• Central Business District
• industry/factories
• working-class housing
• middle-class housing
• high-class housing

Question 9

problems in HICs

Answer 9

• not enough good-quality affordable housing
• too much traffic and pollution
• CBD with rundown/unused buildings
• high unemployment
• mixed culture > ethnic segregation

Question 10

what the government can do about problems in HICs

Answer 10

• regenerating old inner city houses into high-rise flats
• more people able to stay in high-rise flats than one terraced house > attractiveness of the inner city
• re-locating some of the population elsewhere
• building new towns

Question 11

problems in urban areas

Answer 11

• air/noise/water/visual pollution
• inequality
• housing issues
• traffic congestion
• conflicts over land use change
• crime

Question 12

urban sprawl

Answer 12

the spreading outwards of a city and surrounding suburbs, leading to a change in the surrounding area

Question 13

counter urbanisation

Answer 13

the process of people moving from cities and towns into the countryside

Question 14

suburbanisation

Answer 14

villages growing in size and taking on more urban characteristics

Question 15

causes of suburbanisation (push/pull)

Answer 15

push:
- congestion
- high rates of air/noise/visual pollution
- high crime rates
- high land values
- lack of space
pull:
- perceived better quality of life
- safer/more pleasant environment
- less pollution
- more open space
- lower land values and cheaper housing
- room for businesses to expand

Question 16

positive effects of suburbanisation

Answer 16

• new business suits
• large out of town shopping centers > greater range of products/services
• growth in village/population
• new housing developments

Question 17

negative effects of suburbanisation

Answer 17

• lost time commuting > lack of productivity
• becomes more like the suburbs of a city
• increase in people who own a second home
• changes in the character of the countryside/rural way of living
• loss of community
• increase in commuting > higher car ownership/pollution

Question 18

why people move to the countryside

Answer 18

improvements in transports and technology > increase in counterurbanisation (easier for people to commute to work or indeed work remotely from home by internet/fax/e-mail technology)