Urban Place Characteristics - IB Geography Revision Notes

Urban Site & Function

What is a Settlement?

• Settlement: A place where people live and engage in activities like trade and manufacturing.
• Types based on:
  • Shape or form
  • Population size
  • Function
  • Features
  • Hierarchy
• Range from isolated rural buildings to urban megacities (10+ million people).
• Physical geography affects settlement patterns.

What are Urban Settlements?

• Definitions vary:
  • UK: Population over 10,000.
  • Globally: Over 5,000 residents.
• Characteristics:
  • High density of structures (houses, commercial buildings, roads, etc.).
  • Large size, high population density.
  • Depend on water, relief, soil fertility.
  • Diverse social/cultural activities (entertainment, education, healthcare).
  • Densely populated, high economic, social, cultural diversity.
  • Located near major transportation routes.
• Complex land use structure with diverse zones.
• Influenced by geography, climate, history, politics, culture, globalization.

Site and Situation

• Site: Physical land where the settlement is built.
  • Influenced by natural conditions, historical development, and more.
• Situation: Position relative to other features (forest, lake).

Functions of Settlements

• Functions evolve over time, starting with one function, expanding to others.
• Example: Liverpool's shift from trade port to tourism center.
• Functions: Political, commercial, tourism, transportation, educational, agriculture.

Urban Land Use

Urban Land Use

• Refers to activities in towns/cities.
• Cities grow from a historic center to an urban fringe.
• Common features: central core, inner-city zone, suburban zone, urban fringe.

Central Core

• Oldest city part, central business district (CBD).
• High land value, retail and office space.
• Pedestrian-friendly, high public transport convergence.

Inner-City Zone

• Surrounds core, older worker housing, near transport links and industry.
• Land cost decreases with distance.

Suburban Zone

• Residential, segregated by wealth, ethnicity, policy.
• Semi-detached housing, tree-lined streets.
• Lower land cost, larger properties.

Urban Fringe

• Outer city edges, urban sprawl erodes countryside.
• Clusters of housing estates, industrial land use.

Settlement Hierarchy

What is a Settlement Hierarchy?

• Importance of settlement determined by population size, services provided, number of settlements.
• As hierarchy rises, fewer settlements but more population and services.
• Hierarchy: Dispersed, hamlets, villages, market towns, large towns, cities, conurbations, megacities.

Megacities

• Urban areas with >10 million inhabitants (Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, etc.).
• 2007: More urban dwellers than rural.
• By 2050: Two-thirds of the global population expected to live in urban areas.
• Fastest urban growth in Asia.

Urban Growth

What is Urban Growth?

• Increase in size/population of urban areas.
• Driven by economic development, migration, industrialization, planning.
• Planned vs. spontaneous growth.
• Effects: Higher productivity, innovation, standards vs. environmental degradation, congestion, inequality.
• Growth patterns vary: compact, sprawling, polycentric.

Factors Affecting Urban Growth

• Climate/weather: Affects resources, energy demand, health, tourism.
• Agriculture: Provides food/income, raw materials, affected by soil, water, climate.
• Industry: Economic development, employment, innovation, depends on labor, capital, infrastructure.
• Residential: Housing conditions depend on population, income, preferences, mobility, affects public service demand.

Diagrams

• Concentric circles model of city zones.
• Settlement hierarchy pyramid.
• World map of megacities and their population ranges.