SETTLEMENT
Concept of Settlement
Categories, Types and Characteristics of Settlements
Explain categories, types and characteristics of settlements
Types and characteristics of settlements
There
are two types of settlements which are urban and rural settlements. The
characteristics which define a settlement include the size, population
density and activities being undertaken in these two types of
settlements.
Rural settlements
The
definition of a rural settlement depends on the country. In some
countries, a rural settlement is any settlement in the areas defined as
rural by the government. This may include even rural towns. In some
others, rural settlements traditionally do not include towns.
In
developing countries, like Tanzania, the basic unit of a rural
settlement is the homestead. The inhabitants in this kind of settlement
occupy isolated homesteads that form their homes. Often, homesteads are
owned by people of common ancestry or kinship. These people are mainly
farmers or peasants. This gives a clear indication that agriculture is
the mainstay of rural dwellers.
In
Tanzania, about 80% of the population live in rural areas. To
supplement their farming activities, some rural communities engage in
other traditional activities such as weaving, carving, fishing and
harvesting of timber from the forest.
Characteristics of rural settlements
There
are several characteristics which distinguish a rural settlement from
an urban settlement. Characteristics of a rural settlement include the
following:
- Exhibits distantly-placed houses, some several kilometres apart.
- Agriculture is the major activity undertaken in rural areas.
- It is characterized by simple houses; many thatched with grass and few with iron sheets, and smeared with mud.
- Many temporary and very few permanent buildings, some of which are inherited from family members.
Urban settlements
An
urban settlement is a densely populated area comprising mostly of
man-made structures that contain all of a society's administrative,
cultural, residential and religious functions. Urban settlements are
characterized by continuous buildings with people of mixed ancestry and
kinship. The main economic activities of urban dwellers include trade,
commerce, and social and industrial activities.
In general, urban areas are densely populated compared to rural areas which are sparsely populated.
Characteristics of urban settlements
Many
characteristics distinguish urban settlements form rural settlements.
Characteristics of a rural settlement include the following:
- The number of urban settlements and their boundaries will change over time, depending on construction activities and change of present population.
- The boundary line of the urban settlements is independent of the administrative boundaries.
- Urban centres are characterised by a denser population and which is engaged in industrial activities.
- Trading is a major activity undertaken in urban areas.
Categories of settlements
Categories
of settlements ideally refer to settlement patterns. A settlement
pattern is an arrangement or layout of dwellings in a particular area.
A
settlement pattern assumes a distinct form as it grows, which may be
influenced by different factors such as topography of an area and
availability of a suitable land for farming. Transport routes and
communication lines also may influence the pattern that emerges. Human
factors such as an increase in population may lead to the spreading of
settlements because as many people will be searching for new land to
settle on. There are three categories of settlement patterns as
explained in detail below.
1. Scattered or dispersed settlement pattern
This
is a pattern in which dwellings are randomly spread out over an area.
Typically, there are a number of separate homesteads scattered
throughout the area. The houses may be separate from one another by
physical features such as valleys, rivers, and ridges.
Dispersed
settlement is common in areas where people own individual pieces of
land. It is commonly found in rural areas where population is low and
the land is freely available for occupation as well as where water is
readily available. The pattern is also very common in places where there
is reliable security over a wide area.
Factors leading to a scattered pattern of settlement include the following:
- Plenty of land to build anywhere the population wishes to.
- Avoidance of harsh climate e.g. arid and semi-arid areas.
- Poor or infertile soils(iv) Presence of pests and diseases.
- Presence of physical features such as ridges, valleys which separate houses.
Fig 4.1 Scattered settlement pattern
2. Nucleated settlement pattern
Nucleated,
also known as clustered or compact pattern settlement pattern, consists
of dwellings and other buildings which are concentrated in a group in a
relatively small area. This type of settlement is found in urban
centres such as towns and cities but also in some parts of rural areas.
A nucleated settlement pattern develops because of several factors which include the following:
- Availability of social services such as water, hospitals, schools or other social amenities.
- Presence of factories, industries or natural resources such as minerals or water.
- Shortage of land for settlement.
- Security concerns, especially areas where banditry is not a threat.
- Favourable climate favouring high agricultural production e.g. southern highlands.
- Availability of fertile soils for agriculture.
Fig 4.2 Nucleated settlement pattern
3. Linear settlement pattern
A
linear settlement pattern is one where buildings are developed along
specific features such as a river or road. Buildings appear to be
arranged in a line following the course of the feature. The lines may be
straight or curved depending on the nature of the feature along which
houses are built.
Linear patterns may be influenced by the following factors:
- (i) Presence of a transport line e.g. road or railway.
- Presence of a river or a spring to provide water for domestic or commercial use.
- Presence of a coastline which has a favourable fishing ground e.g. shore of East African coast.
- Suitable terrain for cultivation of crops such as at the foot of a scarp.
Fig 4.3 Linear settlement pattern
The Functions of Settlements and their Importance
Explain the functions of settlements and their importance
Functions of settlements
A
settlement's functions are the activities that take place there.
Settlements normally have a number of functions but one may be more
important than the others.
Most
large settlements in MEDCs (Most Economically Developed Countries) are
multifunctional and perform a range of functions such as retail,
education and industry. When settlements first started to grow, most had
only one distinct function, and others developed as the settlement
grew.
Examples of settlement functions include the following:
- Market towns: originate as centres for sale and distribution of goods and services.
- Mining towns: are located in areas that contain a supply of natural resources such as coal, diamond and tin.
- Manufacturing and industrial towns: grown around the source of raw materials often in conjunction with mining towns.
- Route centres: located at nodal points (points where two routes intersect or branch off) that develop from the transportation of raw materials for processing of manufactured products to the marketing centres.
- Administrative centres: Involve settlements that are strategically well placed to combine several functions and provide administrative services on a regional or national basis.
- Port centres: The original function of ports is the transport of raw materials, goods, services and passengers with development of national and international trade. Such centres have naturally acquired additional functions like business.
- Resort centre- a settlement where tourists visit to enjoy themselves.
Importance of settlements
Well-established rural or urban settlements are important because of the following reasons:
Availability of social services
Provision
of social services such as education, healthcare, transport and
communication, and water depends on the number of people staying in a
particular geographical location. Settlements concentrate people in one
place and this has made it easy for the government and non-governmental
organizations to provide social and other services to people.
Enhancement of security
Security
is usually high when people are living together than when they are
isolated. People living in isolated homesteads spread far apart are easy
to attack because they have a little unit and compounded strength to
defend themselves against any external threat. When people are organized
in settlements, defence can be smoothly and easily conducted. It is
also easy for the government to provide people with security if they
live together in an established settlement.
Economic development
When
citizens are settled in a reasonably big group, it is easier for the
diffusion of economic development into such a group to take place. For
example, banks, industries and factories develop in such areas mainly
because of readily available labour and market. It is also easy to
provide agricultural inputs and machinery. This improves the lifestyle
and life standards of the people.
Also,
because people depend on each other in a number of ways, living
together helps to boost one another’s incomes. For example, the income
of a livestock keeper depends on people employed in other sectors of
economy. Likewise, milk vendors and livestock keepers are economically
interdependent. This form of interdependency is made easy when farmers
and milk vendors live in the same settlement setting.
Political services
When
people live together, it easy for them to participate in different
political activities like attending political rallies, selecting their
leaders, and discussing and finding solutions to their problems.
Growth of settlements
Social and Economic Problems Associated with Urban Growth
Assess social and economic problems associated with urban growth
Urbanization
is associated with a number of problems which include environmental
degradation, rise in criminal activities, inadequate housing, traffic
congestion, unemployment, immorality, shortage of public utilities such
as water, and emergence of street children. These problems are explained
in detail below:
Overcrowding:
This is a situation whereby a large number of people live in a small
space. Great number of immigrants is coming from the countryside into
the urban areas. An increase in birth rate and a drop in mortality rate
lead to population explosion and hence fast increase in the number of
people which does not match the ability of the government to provide
social services to people. The end result is overcrowding of people in
urban areas.
Immorality:
the increase in number of people at certain areas causes the increase
of unbecoming behaviours like prostitution and a sharp drop in other
moral values among the community.
Water and sanitation problems:
Because of overpopulation and rapid population increase in most urban
centres, it is common to find inadequate sewage facilities.
Municipalities and local governments are faced with serious resource
crisis in the management of sewage facilities. As a result, sanitation
becomes poor and sewages flow chaotically, and they are drained into
neighbouring streams, rivers, lakes, or seas. Eventually, communicable
diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhoea spread very fast
leading to suffering and even deaths. Overcrowding also highly
contributes to water scarcity as supply falls short of demand.
Crime:
Population explosion in urban areas leads to increased criminal
activities such as pick pocketing, coning, human and drug trafficking,
cyber crime and armed robbery, just to mention a few.
Unemployment:
due to the increase in the number of people in urban areas, people
compete for limited jobs in the urban centres and many of them lack job
vacancies. As a result, they remain jobless. And because of high influx
of immigrants from the rural areas into urban centres, the problem of
unemployment is growing steadily.
Traffic congestion:
This refers to the presence of a high number of vehicles, especially
private cars, which lead to noise pollution as well as air pollution as
experienced in Dar -es salaam and other major cities.
Inadequate social services like water and healthcare:
Some urban centres do not have reliable sources of water. As the
population increases, water sources are strained and most residential
areas experience water shortage. For instance, Dar es Salaam dwellers
suffer from water shortage throughout the year.
Street children:
A fast increase in the number of people causes the lack of social
services and conflicts in the family and at the end families break up
leading to street children. These kids decided to run away due to the
lack of adequate services.
Housing problems:
Urbanization attracts people to cities and towns, a fact which leads to
high population increase. With the increase in the number of people
living in urban centres, there is continued scarcity of houses. This is
due to insufficient expansion space for housing and public utilities,
poverty, unemployment, and costly building materials which can only be
afforded by few individuals.
Development of slums:
The cost of living in urban areas is very high. When this is combined
with random and unexpected growth as well as unemployment, there is the
spread of unlawful resident settlements represented by slums and
squatters. The growth of slums and squatters in urban areas is even
further exacerbated by fast-paced industrialization, lack of developed
land for housing, large influx of rural immigrants to the cities in
search of better life, and the elevated prices of land beyond the reach
of the urban poor.
The problems associated with urban growth were explained in detail in the chapter about human population.
Ways of Solving Existing Problems Related to Urban Growth
Suggest ways of solving existing problems related to urban growth
Problems
resulting from urban growth cannot be left unattended if really the
people’s standard of living is to be improved. The following are the
ways of solving existing problems related to urban growth.
Government policies
The
government should develop and impose policies targeting stabilization
of urban settlements. Rural environments should be developed and
improved through improvement of social services like water, electricity,
education, and healthcare. For example, water supply can be improved by
construction of more dams to preserve water for the population as well
as improvement of infrastructure so as to facilitate economic
development. This will make rural settlements hospitable enough to keep
their inhabitants intact. As a result, the problem of rural-urban
migration will be reduced a great deal. Also rural settlements should be
planned.
This
done sustainably, population pressure in urban areas would drop. The
government should take measures to re-distribute land under well defined
rules and laws to make all rural inhabitants have pieces of land to
work on.
Good urban planning
There
must be a strong national policy on urban planning so as to prevent
growth of unplanned settlements (slums and squatters). It is unfortunate
that most African countries don’t bother to solve this problem before
it gets worse. For example, 80% of settlements in Dar es Salaam City are
unplanned. Housing design must try to meet the demand of the citizens.
Family planning
As
street children are caused by the lack of social services, among other
causes, this problem can be reduced by using the family planning methods
to reduce the number of children in the family. This will make the
provision of social services as well as the employment opportunities a
possibility.
A
range of available family planning techniques should be addressed and
implemented by the government to control high population growth rate. In
fact, the rate of population growth does not match the government’s
ability to supply social services, particularly housing facilities, to
the ever-growing population.
Development of the informal sector
Deliberate
efforts to promote employment in the informal sector coupled with soft
loans would make people settle anywhere in the country and consequently
refrain from moving into urban centres.
Improvement of rural settlements
The
government should take deliberate measures to improve rural settlements
so as to attract youth to remain there and engage in economic
activities rather than rushing to urban centres in search of jobs. This
will reduce overcrowding and unemployment problems in the urban centres.
One of the solutions is to undertake rural electrification as it is
done by Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in Tanzania. Electrification
of some rural areas has helped improve the rural settlements and hence
reduce the influx of youths from rural to urban areas.
Provision of essential services
The
government must ensure all dwellers in the urban areas have access to
adequate essential social services namely education, health, sanitation
and clean water, technology, electricity, and food.
Creation of employment opportunities
The
city councils have to create more jobs so as to solve the problem of
unemployment, for example, through increasing investments in industries
as well as agriculture, which will lead to the provision of jobs to
youths.
Establishment of a reliable transport
Private
cars have been increasing extensively and becoming a problem. By
establishing a reliable and comfortable public transport in urban areas,
the problem of traffic jams will be reduced. More people will opt to
use public transport as opposed to private cars. For example, one of the
solutions to the problem of traffic jams in Dar es Salaam was the
deliberate efforts taken by the government to introduce Bus Rapid
Transport (BRT) which has helped to solve the problem to some extent.
Likewise,
a city train route between the city centre and Gongolamboto was
introduced. Now people can opt to board a train instead of commuter
buses, especially during peak ours.
Liberalization of water services
The
water supply should be liberalized by allowing private investors to
invest in water projects to provide tap water to urban dwellers. The
government of Tanzania has failed to provide sufficient, clean water to
majority of its citizens in rural and urban areas since independency and
the situation does not seem to have an immediate solution.
Counselling services
Religious
and other organizations should conduct counselling sessions to educate
the youth about the dangers of engaging in immorality and use of drugs.
The measures would also control the growth of street families and
juvenile criminals.
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