What is a settlement? Where do we build our settlements and why?

Objectives

•        to use appropriate graphical techniques to present evidence on maps

•        to make and justify a decision

•        to assess the advantages and disadvantages of different settlement sites

•        the reasons for the location, growth and nature of individual settlements

Activities

How do we understand the word ‘settlement’? Are any of these ‘settlements’?

 

Investigate the meaning and derivation of the word.

 

 

Define the word ‘settlement’ as a geographer would use it.

 

Saffire: Uttlesford Area Maps

 

Can you identify the following types of settlement in your area?

What are the map symbols and physical features that give you the clues? Draw a couple of types of settlement and note your observations.

Skills Learned

 

•        define and explain the word ‘settlement’

•        use OS maps to illustrate the different reasons for settlement location

 

Where should all the new houses go?

Objectives

 

•        to ask geographical questions

•        to use secondary sources of evidence

•        to consider an issue from different points of view

•        to clarify and develop their own values and attitudes about issues

•        to develop decision-making skills using ICT

•        to read, with understanding, an information text

•        about changes in land use

•        to consider how and why changes in the functions of settlements occur and how these changes affect groups of people in different ways

Activities

BBC NEWS | England | Plans for 4,000 Suffolk homes

 

BBC NEWS | England | 300,000 homes for 'growth areas'

 

BBC NEWS | UK | Homes in the country?

 

BBC NEWS | Business | Planning checks 'forcing homes crisis'

 

What are ‘brownfield’ and ‘greenfield’ sites?

 

Summarise the points of view expressed by the CPRE about housing developments.

CPRE - Council for the Protection of Rural England

Are you convinced by their arguments?

 

Identify a new/proposed housing site locally – either ‘brownfield’ or ‘greenfield’ – and locate it on a map.

 

What questions could be asked about it?

 

What might the reaction to this new development be of

 

Browse

A settlement hierarchy and shopping patterns

How much does the local development you have been looking at represent a ‘change in function’ eg from derelict industrial building to new housing development.

 

Using what you have learned, write a report on

  • Why does England need so many new houses?
  • Where will they be built and how will people already living in these areas be affected?’ 
  • How is this issue affecting people locally?

Skills Learned

 

•        make and justify a decision about where new housing is to be built

•        understand the different reactions of people to new housing developments and changes of function

•        communicate in different styles, eg notes, continuous prose, orally

 

How is land used in a town or city? Where are the different land-use zones found and why? How has the pattern developed? How is the pattern changing? How are different groups of people affected?

Objectives

•        to use maps and secondary sources of evidence

•        about patterns and changes in urban land use

•        how changes affect groups of people in different ways

•        to clarify and develop their own values and attitudes about issues

Activities

Complete

The patterns and functions of settlement

 

An MEDC is a More Economically Developed Country while an LEDC is a Less Economically Developed Country.

 

A CBD is a Central Business District.

 

Browse

Urbanisation including a case study of London Docklands; an MEDC development

 

What does ‘urbanisation’ mean?

 

GeoTopics @ GeoNet: Urban problems in a LEDC including a case study of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

 

Complete this table;

 

 

London Dockland

Sao Paulo

Why is there a settlement here?

 

 

What is at the centre of the settlement and what has been the history of its development?

 

 

Would you describe the development as being planned?

 

 

Are there any environmental problems?

How are these being solved?

 

 

How does the physical geography of the area affect the development?

 

 

How is the development being financed?

 

 

Is there equality in provision for the rich and the poor; the original inhabitants?

 

 

Who is making the decisions?

 

 

Who benefits from the development?

 

 

 

GeoTopics @ GeoNet: Land use including a quiz and crossword puzzle.

 

Write a short paragraph with diagrams explaining the different land-use patterns in cities in MEDC and LEDC countries.

 

Consider the advantages/disadvantages of the changes you have learned about and how they will have affected different groups of people.

 

Write about your findings/imagined responses in two paragraphs (one in favour and another against the changes). 

Skills Learned

•        describe the main land-use zones of a ‘typical’ town or city, and offer reasons for their relative location

•        identify some of the main similarities and differences between land-use zones in towns and cities in MEDCs and LEDCs

•        account for the differences in the growth and development of a town or city in an MEDC/LEDC country

•        describe and explain how land use changes over time

•        describe and explain how changes affect groups of people in different ways