Human Settlement: Types, Patterns, and Challenges in Rural and Urban Areas

Understanding Human Settlements

• A human settlement is defined as a place inhabited more or less permanently.
• Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live.
• There may be some Human settlements which are temporary and are occupied for short periods, may be a season

Categorizing Human Settlements: Types and Characteristics

1. Temporary Human settlements
2. Rural Human settlements (Countryside)

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• Isolated building
• Hamlet
• Village
• Small market town

1. Permanent Human settlements
2. Urban Human settlements (Towns and cities)

• Larger industrial town
• City
• Conurbation and capital cities
• It is widely accepted that Human settlements can be differentiated in terms of rural and urban, but there is no consensus on what exactly defines a village or a town. Although population size is an important criterion, it is not a universal criterion since many villages in densely populated countries of India and China have population exceeding that of some towns of Western Europe and the United States.

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Rural Human Settlements and Their Characteristics

• Rural Human settlements are most closely and directly related to land.
• They are dominated by primary activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing etc.
• The rural Human settlement size is relatively small.

Types of Rural Human settlements

• The sparsely located small settlements are called villages, specialising in agriculture or other primary activities.
• Rural Human settlements in India can broadly be put into four types:

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Clustered Human Settlements (agglomerated or nucleated)

• The clustered rural Human settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses.
• In this type of village, the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures.
• The closely built-up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape
• Such Human settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the north eastern states. Sometimes develop along river valleys.
• Communities are closely knit and share common occupations.

Semi-Clustered (or fragmented) Human Settlements

• Semi-clustered or fragmented Human settlements may
• result from tendency of clustering in a
• restricted area of dispersed Human settlement.
• More often such a pattern may also result from
• segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village
• Such Human settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan.

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Hamleted Human Settlements

• These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, in various parts of the country.
• This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.

Dispersed (or isolated) Human Settlements

• Dispersed or isolated Human settlement patterns in India appear in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes.
• Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.
• A cultural feature such as a place of worship or a market, binds the Human settlement together.

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Determinants of Rural Human Settlement Locations

• Land: People choose to settle near fertile lands suitable for agriculture.
• Upland: Upland which is not prone to flooding was chosen to prevent damage to houses and loss of life.
• Defense: During the times of political instability, war, hostility of neighboring groups villages were built on defensive hills and islands.
• Planned Human Settlements: Sites that are not spontaneously chosen by villagers themselves, planned Human settlements are constructed by governments by providing shelter, water and other infrastructures on acquired lands. The scheme of villagization in Ethiopia and the canal colonies in Indira Gandhi canal command area in India are some of good examples.
• Water Supply
  • Usually rural Human settlements are located near water bodies such as rivers, lakes, and springs where water can be easily obtained.
  • Sometimes the need for water drives people to settle in otherwise disadvantaged sites such as islands surrounded by swamps or low-lying river banks.
  • Most water based ‘wet point’ settlements have many advantages such as water for drinking, cooking and washing.
  • Rivers and lakes can be used to irrigate farmland.
  • Water bodies also have fish which can be caught for diet and navigable rivers and lakes can be used for transportation.
• Building Material
• The availability of building materials- wood, stone near Human settlements is another advantage.
• Early villages were built in forest clearings where wood was plentiful.

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Patterns of Rural Human Settlement: Spatial Arrangements in Rural Human Settlements

1. Linear pattern: In such Human settlement’s houses are located along a road, railway line, river, canal edge of a valley or along a levee.
2. Rectangular pattern: Such patterns of rural Human settlements are found in plain areas or wide intermontane valleys. The roads are rectangular and cut each other at right angles.
3. Circular pattern: Circular villages develop around lakes, tanks and sometimes the village is planned in such a way that the central part remains open and is used for keeping the animals to protect them from wild animals.
4. Star like pattern: Where several roads converge, star shaped Human settlements develop by the houses built along the roads.
5. T-shaped, Y-shaped, Cross-shaped or cruciform settlements: T-shaped settlements develop at tri-junctions of the roads. Y-shaped settlements emerge as the places where two roads converge on the third one and houses are built along these roads. Cruciform Human settlements develop on the cross-roads and houses extend in all the four directions.
6. Double village: These Human settlements extend on both sides of a river where there is a bridge or a ferry.

Problems of Rural Human Settlements

• Rural Human settlements in the developing countries are large in number and poorly equipped with infrastructure. They represent a great challenge and opportunity for planners.
• Supply of water to rural Human settlements in developing countries is not adequate. People in villages, particularly in mountainous and arid areas have to walk long distances to fetch drinking water. Water borne diseases such as cholera and jaundice tend to be a common problem.
• The countries of South Asia face conditions of drought and flood very often.
• Crop cultivation sequences, in the absence of irrigation, also suffer.
• The general absence of toilet and garbage disposal facilities cause health related problems.
• The houses made up of mud, wood and thatch, remain susceptible to damage during heavy rains and floods, and require proper maintenance every year. Most house designs are typically deficient in proper ventilation.
• Unmetalled roads and lack of modern communication networks creates a unique problem. During the rainy season, the Human settlements remain cut off and pose serious difficulties in providing emergency services.
• It is also difficult to provide adequate health and educational infrastructure for their large rural population.

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Urban Human Settlements: Categories and Classifications

• The definition of urban areas varies from one country to another.
• Urban settlements are generally compact and larger in size than rural settlements.
• They are engaged in a variety of non- agricultural, economic and administrative functions.
• Urban settlements are classified as following:

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Classification of Urban Human Settlements Based on Age

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Classification of Urban Human Settlements On Basis Of Population

• Census of India classifies urban centres into six classes on the basis of population size.
• Class I towns have about 60% of the total urban population.

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• Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities and more than five million are called mega cities.
• Majority of metropolitan and mega cities are urban agglomerations.

CLASSIFICATION OF URBAN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS ON BASIS OF FUNCTIONS

• Administrative Towns: Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Chennai, etc

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• Industrial Towns: Industries constitute the prime motive force of these cities, such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
• Transport Cities: They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities such as Kandla, Kochchi, Kozhikode, Visakhapatnam, etc., or hubs of inland transport, such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughalsarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.
• Mining Towns: These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar, Singrauli, etc.
• Cantonment Towns: These towns emerged as garrison towns such as Ambala, Mhow, Babina, Jalandhar, Udhampur, etc.
• Educational Towns: Starting as centres of education, some of the towns have grown into major campus towns, such as Roorki, Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani, Allahabad, etc.
• Religious & Cultural Towns: Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri, Ajmer, Pushkar, Tirupati, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain came to prominence due to their religious/cultural significance.
• Tourist Towns: Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty), Mount Abu are some of the tourist destinations.

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CLASSIFICATION OF URBAN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS ON BASIS OF FORMS

• An urban Human settlement may be linear, square, star or crescent shaped. In fact, the form of the Human settlement, architecture and style of buildings and other structures are an outcome of its historical and cultural traditions.
• Towns and cities of developed and developing countries reflect marked differences in planning and development. While most cities in developed countries are planned, most urban Human settlements of developing countries have evolved historically with irregular shapes. For example, Chandigarh and Canberra are planned cities, while smaller towns in India have evolved historically from walled cities to large urban sprawls.

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Addis Ababa (The New Flower)

• The name of Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, as the name indicates (Addis-New, Ababa -Flower) is a ‘new’ city which was established in 1878.

Addis Ababa city

• The whole city is located on a hill-valley topography. The road pattern bears the influence of the local topography. The roads radiate from the govt headquarters Piazza, Arat and Amist Kilo roundabouts. Mercato has markets which grew with time and is supposed to be the largest market between Cairo and Johannesburg. A multi-faculty university, a medical college, and a number of good schools make Addis Ababa an educational centre.
• It is also the terminal station for the Djibouti-Addis Ababa rail route. Bole airport is a relatively new airport. The city has witnessed rapid growth because of its multi- functional nature and being a large nodal centre located in the centre of Ethiopia.

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Canberra

• Canberra was planned as the capital of Australia in 1912 by American landscape architect, Walter Burley Griffin. He had envisaged a garden city for about 25,000 people taking into account the natural features of the landscape. There were to be five main centres, each with separate city functions.

Canberra city

• During the last few decades, the city has expanded to accommodate several satellite towns, which have their own centres. The city has wide-open spaces and many parks and gardens.

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Types of Urban Human Settlements

1. Town: The concept of ‘town’ can best be understood with reference to ‘village’. Population size is not the only criterion. Functional contrasts between towns and villages may not always be clear-cut, but specific functions such as manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and professional services exist in towns.
   

   The census of India, 1991 defines urban settlements as “All places which have municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee and have a minimum population of 5000 persons, at least 75 percent of male workers are engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a density of population of at least 400 persons per square kilometres are urban.

2. City: A city may be regarded as a leading town, which has outstripped its local or regional rivals. Cities are much larger than towns and have a greater number of economic functions. They tend to have transport terminals, major financial institutions and regional administrative offices. When the population crosses the one million mark it is designated as a million city.
3. Conurbation: The term conurbation was coined by Patrick Geddes in 1915 and applied to a large area of urban development that resulted from the merging of originally separate towns or cities. Greater London, Manchester, Chicago and Tokyo are examples.
4. Megalopolis: This Greek word meaning “great city”, was popularised by Jean Gottman (1957) and signifies ‘super – metropolitan’ region extending, as union of conurbations. The urban landscape stretching from Boston in the north to south of Washington in the U.S.A. is the best known example of a megalopolis.
5. Million plus cities: According to the 2011 census, there were 46 million-plus cities in India, with Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata having populations over 10 million.

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Challenges in Urban Human Settlements

1. Economic Problems:

• The decreasing employment opportunities in the rural as well as smaller urban areas of the developing countries consistently push the population to the urban areas.
• The enormous migrant population generates a pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour force, which is already saturated in urban areas

2. Socio-cultural Problems

• Cities in developing countries suffer from several social ills. Insufficient financial resources fail to create adequate social infrastructure catering to the basic needs of the huge population.
• The available educational and health facilities remain beyond the reach of the urban poor. Health indices also present a gloomy picture in cities of developing countries.
• Lack of employment and education tends to aggravate the crime rates. Male selective migration to the urban areas distorts the sex ratio in these cities.

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3. Environmental Problem:

• Vulnerability to risk posed by the increasing man-made and natural disasters. According to UNDP, 70 % of the Indian population is at risk to floods and 60% susceptible to earthquakes.
• The risk is higher in urban areas owing to density and overcrowding. Urban areas are becoming heat islands, ground water is not being recharged and the water crisis is persistent. Here making, water harvesting compulsory will be beneficial
• Environmental concerns such as urban areas becoming heat islands, rising air pollution, groundwater pollution and persistent water crisis.

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