Rural settlement types and patterns are influenced by factors such as physical factors, cultural factors, historical factors, economic factors, and demographic factors.
- Physical Factors — Physical factors determine the type of houses and the distance between the homes. They include rainfall, terrain, soil fertility, etc. Water is a vital component in arid or semi-arid regions; therefore, houses are generally located along with water sources. This influences the distribution of homes.
- Cultural Factors — Cultural factors, e.g., ethnicity and religion, influence how people live their lives, use their land, ideas of ownership, the crops grown, social hierarchy, and availability of transportation. For instance, landowners in India reside at the center of the village, with other service providers living on the periphery. This results in social segregation and fragmented settlements. Since culture influences how people use their land and ideas of ownership, land ownership is a cultural factor and not a physical aspect.
- Historical Factors — Certain populations believe they are meant to stay in a particular region leading individual lives. For example, the Danish Inuits think they're meant to live in Greenland with their descendants.
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Rural settlement patterns define the shape and not the density of a population in the rural areas. Some of the rural settlement patterns are discussed below:
Linear Rural Settlement Pattern
Linear rural settlements comprise houses built along a line. They are often found along riverbanks, roads, sea coasts, etc. Except for mountainous regions, agricultural lands extend behind the houses. For a linear settlement pattern along a river, the river provides water for domestic and is also a means of transport. Roads can be constructed parallel to the river to access the inland farms. In a long valley, the expected settlement pattern is linear.
Rectangular Rural Settlement Pattern
The distribution of houses in rectangular settlement patterns forms a rectangular shape. Rectangular settlement patterns are primarily found in plains or inter-montane valleys. The settlement patterns develop at crossroads where the roads intersect at right angles. Rectangular settlement is the most common settlement pattern in the Gangetic plains of India.
Circular or Semi-Circular Rural Settlement Pattern
Circular or semi-circular settlement patterns comprise structures surrounding a central space. In Africa, such settlements are called Kraal, while in Germany, they are called Rundling, and in France, they are called Bastides or Circulades. Circular settlements are often situated on top of hills and are built that way for defense purposes.
Triangular Rural Settlement Pattern
When houses are built so that their distribution forms a triangle-like shape, the settlement pattern is called a triangular settlement. Triangular settlement patterns are often found where two roads converge or multiple rivers confluence. A village develops on the land between the rivers or roads, whose expansion is limited by the rivers/roads.
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There are three main types of settlements in rural areas classified according to population density and spread. They include compact settlements, semi-compact settlements, and dispersed settlements.
Compact Settlements
Compact settlements have houses clustered together, often joining on the sides. The houses may also be stacked in numerous family buildings. There are narrow streets between the rows of homes and buildings. Compact settlements are majorly found on higher grounds of fertile floodplains, where farming is the main activity. Consequently, they have the highest population density.
Semi-Compact Settlements
Semi-compact settlements are also called hamlet settlements. Semi-compact settlements are built collectively within a definite boundary. The houses are adequately spaced in semi-compact settlements as opposed to compact settlements. In rural environments, semi-compact settlements are usually a transitionary phase to a compact settlement. Due to population growth, the spaces between the houses are bound to be filled, forming a compact settlement. Semi-compact settlements are common in the countryside regions less prone to floods since the community is expected to grow.
Dispersed Settlements
In dispersed settlements, homes and farmsteads are scattered in a vast rural landscape. Houses are built on the farms to keep them near livestock. Thus homes are separated by enormous distances. Dispersed settlements may be caused by low population, infertile lands, extreme weather conditions, and scarcity of natural resources forcing people to migrate. Dispersed settlements are significantly different from compact and semi-compact settlements because, while compact and semi-compact settlements consist of clustered populations, dispersed settlements are found in vast landscapes covered in fields with few houses placed far between.
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Rural settlements are the situations where people settle on the outskirts of cities and towns. Usually characterized by large landscapes and alleys. The distribution pattern of buildings and houses in a particular geographic region is referred to as a settlement pattern. Rural settlement patterns describe the shapes resulting from population distribution in rural areas. They include linear, rectangular, circular, semi-circular and triangular rural settlement patterns. Linear settlements are found in lines along roads, rivers, or a long valley. Settlements can also be of various types. Triangular settlement patterns are found where two rivers or roads converge, while Circular settlement patterns surround a central space. Rectangular settlements are majorly found at crossroads where roads intersect at right angles. The major types of settlements in rural areas are compact settlements, semi-compact settlements ( also called hamlet settlements), and dispersed settlements. In compact settlements, the houses are close, often joined. There is a good amount of space between buildings in semi-compact settlements, unlike compact settlements. Dispersed settlements have few houses that are spread far apart.
There are several factors influencing rural settlement types and patterns. The factors are: cultural, physical, economic, historical, and demographic. Physical factors influencing settlement types and patterns include soil fertility, terrain, rainfall, etc. Land ownership is a cultural factor of settlement since aspects such as religion and ethnicity influence how people live, how they use their land, who owns the land, and the crops grown. Settlement patterns refer to the shape and not the density of a population. Therefore, dispersed settlement is not associated with any rural settlement pattern. Unlike dispersed settlements which are too spread out to define a shape, other types of settlement, such as compact and semi-compact settlements, can define shapes and are associated with various settlement patterns.
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Video Transcript
Going to the Country
Have you visited the country? Did it have a village, or were all the houses spread out among the farms? If it had a village, can you think of a reason all the houses were clustered? What geographic features did you see? Why do people live in certain types of communities with so much empty farmland around it? Before delving into this topic, we should take a moment to clearly define what we mean by rural, including the settlement types and patterns.
What Exactly is Rural?
Rural is a difficult term to define. In some senses, it means the landscape and habitations outside of cities and towns. But what about small towns and villages surrounded by fields? For our purposes, rural refers to areas outside of cities where a large amount of the surrounding land is used for agriculture or animal pastures. This also helps delineate non-city areas that are just forested, something you wouldn't often think of as rural.
Rural settlement types refer to how the people of a community live in relation to the land. Are they stacked close together with the farmland outside their tight living quarters? Or is the landscape divided into individual farms with a farmhouse on each plot? Finally, rural settlement patterns refer to the shape of a community based on how it arranges houses.
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There are a number of factors that help determine both the type and pattern of a rural settlement, but they generally fall into two categories:
- Physical factors, including the terrain, quality of the land for farming, and defense. Remember, ancient communities and some places today must prepare for raiders.
- Cultural factors, including how people traditionally use the land, ideas of ownership, the crops they choose to grow, social hierarchy, and transportation availability.
Settlement Types
There are generally three types of settlements: compact, semi-compact, and dispersed. Each is based on its population density.
Compact settlements have the highest density of population. They have homes stacked together, often touching at the sides or stacked in multi-family buildings. Streets tend to be narrow between the rows of homes. We often find this type of arrangement in highly fertile floodplains. Houses are stacked together at a point of higher ground, which is sensible for flood-prone areas, while the majority of land uses the fertile alluvial deposits for farming.
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Also referred to as a hamlet, a term for rural villages, semi-compact settlements are often considered a phase of transition to a compact settlement. The houses in a semi-compact settlement still have a good amount of space between the homes, but they are clustered in a definitive boundary instead of spread throughout the surrounding countryside. Researchers believe that the growth of population will add pressure to build new homes and fill in the spaces, producing a compact settlement. However, we see these types of settlements in areas less prone to flood, which may indicate that the community will continue to grow outward with the same space between homes.
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Dispersed settlements involve a vastly different living arrangement than either compact or semi-compact. In this settlement type, farmers do not live in a clustered area with the farmland outside the village; rather, they actually live in houses on their farm, placing them near livestock. In some cases, the home is at the center of the farm's dimensions, while other times the home is more conveniently placed closer to the road. Dispersed settlements are the result of many different factors, including the needs of the farm to have permanent attendants, open grasslands, hilly terrains, and relative security that raiders will not attack it.
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Settlement Patterns
Patterns refer to the shape of a settlement, not its density. It's easier to define the compact or semi-compact settlements, as the dispersed settlements are usually too spread out to define a shape. There are many more patterns, but the most common rural settlement patterns are:
- Linear: These settlements are built in a line of houses. Often, they are found in a long valley, but they can also stretch out along a roadway or riverbank.
- Rectangular: This settlement type occurs in fertile plains where a set area for housing is delineated from the farmland. We also find this in settlements built all at once.
- Circular or semi-circular: These types of settlements are often built partway around or completely surrounding a lake or large pond. Circular settlements are also built for defense with a protective wall around the perimeter.
- Triangular: This type of settlement usually occurs at a crossroads of two major routes, filling one corner of the intersection and going outward with the roads as the boundaries. This also occurs where two rivers meet.
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Lesson Summary
At this point, you may be thinking about the various rural settings you've visited or lived in during your life, identifying each by what you've just learned. Just remember, rural refers to places outside of cities and towns, but more often it refers to areas dominated by farmland. Rural settlement types refer to the density of the population, including compact settlements where houses are closely placed next to or on top of each other. Semi-compact types are clusters of houses, also called hamlets, not as tightly placed as compact settlements, but showing a clear grouping and boundary. Dispersed settlements are scattered throughout the rural landscape with farmers building homes directly on their farmland. Rural settlement patterns refer to the shape of the settlement boundaries, which often involve an interaction with the surrounding landscape features. The most common patterns are linear, rectangular, circular or semi-circular, and triangular.
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