Settlements

A settlement is a place where people live. They can vary in size, from a single house to somewhere as large as a mega city. Settlements can be permanent or temporary and can be grouped using a variety of criteria. A settlement can be classed as dispersed - that is an isolated building or a group of two or three buildings; nucleated, when several buildings are grouped together; or linear, where buildings are strung out along a line of communication such as a main road. These types of settlements can all be spotted on an Ordnance Survey map. During the course of this title we will investigate the different criteria used to describe settlements, before looking at how cities are defined. We will also discuss how urbanisation has many causes and effects, such as conflict on the rural-urban fringe.