GEOGRAPHY GRADE: 8 – TERM: 3
SETTLEMENTS
UNIT: 1 – SETTLEMENT AND LAND USE
1. SETTLEMENT: a place where people live.
2. RURAL SETTLEMENT: a settlement in the countryside far away from a town
or city (e.g. farm).
3. URBAN SETTLEMENT: a settlement that is built-up, like a town or city.
4. POPULATION: amount of people that live in an area.
5. POPULATION DENSITY: the total amount of the population divided by the
total square kilometres of their settlement.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN SETTLEMENTS
RURAL AREAS URBAN AREAS
1. Population density Low High
2. Standard of living Usually low Usually high
3. Finance Poor Wealthier
4. Literacy Low level High level
5. Health care, housing, Generally low standard Generally high standard
infrastructure and standard
of services
6. Employment: Which Mainly primary Mostly secondary and
economic sector do they tertiary
contribute the most?
7. Environment Closely linked to Distant from nature.
nature. Involved in Involved in closed
open-air environments environments more.
more.
LAND USE WITHIN SETTLEMENTS
FUNCTIONS OF A CITY
1. Employment: jobs
2. Residential areas: places to live
3. Entertainment and recreation: sports, learning and having fun
4. Services
5. Transport
6. Religion: places of worship
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LAND USE IN CITIES AND TOWNS
1. CBD (Central Business District)
Usually the centre of a city where
tallest buildings are found
Busiest part of a city
Lots of people and cars
Costs of land and rent are high
Big companies have their offices
here
2. Transition Zone
Area surrounding the CBD
Called ‘transition’ buildings and land use here are changing.
Some parts are old and neglected and other parts are fixed and renovated
Happens as the CBD expands into an old zone of warehouses, vacant
buildings and poorly maintained houses
3. Residential Areas – High, Middle,
Low Income
Areas where people live
Can be close of far from CBD
High density or low density
Low income, middle income or high
income
Formal or informal
4. Shopping Centres
Large shopping centres away from
the CBD in the suburbs
Often called ‘malls’
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Lots of parking
Wide variety of shops
Usually includes entertainment
5. Office parks and business parks
Office blocks in the suburbs away
from the CBD
Businesspeople and customers
prefer this location to the CBD due
to safety, closer to their homes and
not polluted
Usually surrounded by parks and
tress
Lots of parking
6. Zones for heavy and light industry
Land where factories are located
Can be light industry (cleaner and
manufactures small items) or heavy
industry (dirty industry where large-
scale factories produce large items)
Usually on the outskirts of an urban
settlement need large area of
cheaper land and because they
produce lots of pollution
Needs to have access to basic
services and workers’ residence.
7. Services and Recreation
Can be in the urban-rural fringe
(area of land that surrounds the
urban settlement).
Recreation can also be found in the
city centre and shopping centres
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RURAL SETTLEMENTS
1. PRIMARY ACTIVITIES: jobs where people work on the land or sea extracting
natural resources.
2. SECONDARY ACTIVITIES: jobs where people manufacture the natural
resources into final products.
3. TERTIARY ACTIVITIES: jobs where people offer goods and services to the
public.
4. CASH CROPS: crops grown to be sold.
5. MONOCULTURE: practice of planting and growing only one particular crop.
6. MINING: taking valuable minerals out of the ground.
7. QUARRYING: digging minerals and stone out of the ground.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS
1. Small population
2. People mostly work on land in primary activities like farming.
3. Consists of more children and old people as young adults migrate to the
urban areas for work
4. Far away from urban places and are usually far apart
5. Can be isolated and dispersed or clustered and nucleated.
6. Services are not always available. Requires rural people to travel long
distance to obtain them.
TYPES OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS
1. FARMING RURAL SETTLEMENTS
People in these settlements depend on farming for a living and this is often carried
on from generation to generation.
There are two types of farming rural settlements:
Subsistence farming rural settlement Commercial farming rural settlement
Farmers farm for own needs and for Farmers grows cash crops to sell to
their family. make money as a business.
A group of families make up the rural Individual farmsteads usually isolated or
settlement. dispersed.
Traditional methods of farming used Modern technology used in all aspects.
with little modern technology.
Labour intensive farming – people do all Few people required to make the farm
the work. work – technology replaced farm
workers.
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Smaller fields of crops Can be very large
Can plant different crops and keep farm Practise monoculture – farmer cultivates
animals one crop on a large scale to sell for a
profit.
2. MINING RURAL SETTLEMENTS
Mining and quarrying must occur where mineral is found under Earth’s surface, and
this is preferred to be in a remote place away from the urban areas. Companies’
open mines in these areas and miners are required to work underground to extract
these valuable minerals. This leads to the formation of small isolated rural
settlements around the mine.
3. FORESTRY RURAL SETTLEMENTS
Forestry in South Africa occurs mainly in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the
Eastern Cape. People grow trees for wood, fuel and medicine so there are isolated
rural settlements built with natural forests and plantations. People who work in
forestry and in timber mills live in these settlements also known as forest stations.
4. FISHING RURAL SETTLEMENTS
Fishing is a primary activity as fish is a resource which is extracted from the sea or
freshwater. This practice can be both subsistence and commercial, so small rural
fishing settlements occur along the coast where the fishing occurs. This also creates
jobs for people as the fish is dried and processed.
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