Human Settlements: Urban and Rural Dynamics
**Human Settlements: Urban and Rural Dynamics**
**Settlement**
Settlement is the way to take human settlements in space. Types: rural and urban differ in their dimensions and characteristics.
- Rural settlements include small dimensions, such as villages and towns where the predominant sector is primary.
- Urban population comprises over-sized settlements, cities, and secondary sectors. The population works in the tertiary sector.
**Factors Influencing Rural Population**
- Physical: Relief features, the presence of water, and fertility of soil.
- Humans: Historical circumstances, the exploitation of natural resources.
**Types of Rural Settlements**
- Scattered: The house is surrounded by farmland, meadows, and forests and separated from other houses.
- Concentrated: The houses are separated from the land of work and placed together to form villages or towns.
**Criteria for Defining a City**
- Quantitative: A city is considered any core population that surpasses a certain number of inhabitants.
- Qualitative: Cities are considered towns that meet certain characteristics such as physical aspects, marked by high population density and building, with many private and collective bargaining at height.
- Economic: Predominance of industrial and service activities.
**Historical Development of Cities**
Pre-industrial cities were small and developed commercial, craft, and cultural activities. The first cities arose in Mesopotamia on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the classical era, cities were extended to the Mediterranean. They had maps and regulated buildings, such as the Greek agora or the Roman Forum.
In the Middle Ages, European Christian cities rose thanks to the booming trade. Muslim cities also got remarkable development. They were surrounded by walls and adopted an irregular plan with spaces allocated to commercial and craft activities.
The Modern Age saw the geographical spread of urbanization in Africa and America. In the 17th century, absolutist kings beautified cities. In the 18th century, monarchs improved urban hygiene.
The Industrial Revolution (18th century) had a major impact on urban growth. Cities grew rapidly as modern industry attracted a peasant workforce. New urban spaces emerged, including well-planned neighborhoods for the bourgeoisie and disorganized neighborhoods for workers. The urban aspect changed.
**Urban Structure**
- Location: The frame on which the city sits.
- Situation: The position of the city relative to its geographic surroundings.
- Map: The set formed by free surfaces and built in the city.
**Types of City Plans**
- Irregular: Disordered streets, narrow, winding, arranged chaotically from a central core and plain squares.
- Grid: Rectilinear streets that intersect at a right angle.
- Radiocentric: A center from which radial streets cut by others that form rings around the center.
**Urban Layout and Land Use**
- Plot: Includes building or buildings and urban fabric.
- Urban layout: The arrangement of buildings within the city.
- Open frame: Buildings are separated from each other by free space.
- Building: Can be individual and low altitude, or collective and high altitude.
- Land use: The various uses of the spy center, such as residential, industrial, or services.
**Urban Center**
The urban center is an area where the main commercial and business activities of the city are concentrated: shopping malls, financial, leisure, offices of large companies. Features include accessibility, the concentration of vehicles and people during the day, the poor resident population, density, and height of buildings because of the high land value, and the lack of industrial activity.
**Residential Areas**
Historical residential areas form a belt, primarily residential, surrounding the core. They are formed by high-density neighborhoods.
**Suburbs or Outskirts**
Suburbs or outskirts are houses built in more recently urbanized sectors. They include residential areas and industrial equipment.
**Urban Functions**
Urban functions are the activities that occupy cities.
- Political-military: Government and administration of the territory and its defense. Cities house agencies of the central, regional, and local army barracks.
- Economic: Mainly industrial and service sectors. Trade is the most important, although many focus on banking, offices, and business.
- Cultural: Academic, religious, recreational, entertainment, or tourism.
**Urban Networks**
Cities are arranged in space, forming networks consisting of nodes, the urban centers.
**Categories of Urban Centers**
- Global Cities: Lead the international network. They concentrate the most advanced features, are the major centers of the political and economic world, extend their area of influence around the world, and maintain strong links with each other through high-speed transport and telecommunications networks.
- National Metropolis: Head the urban network of their country. They concentrate advanced features nationwide, extend their area of influence around the country, maintain close relations among themselves and with the great international metropolis, and serve as a nexus of connection between the urban and national networks.
- Regional Metropolis: Head the urban network of their region. Their less-specialized functions extend their influence within the region, maintaining close relations with the national metropolis and acting as a nexus between the regional network and national network.
- Small and Medium Cities: Occupy the lower level functions. Their catchment area is subregional or regional, and they maintain close relations with the regional metropolis.