Settlement

Revision

Services
The number ofservicesthat a settlement provides increases

with settlement size.

Small settlements will only providelow-order servicessuch
as a post offices, doctors and newsagents. Large towns,
cities and conurbations will provide low andhigh-order
servicessuch as leisure centres, chain stores and hospitals.
Larger settlements and conurbations have a much
largersphere of influencethan smaller ones. This means
they attract people from a wider area because of the facilities
they offer. Cities such as London have a global sphere of
influence, whereas a small hamlet or village may only have
a sphere of influence of a couple of kilometres.
Services such as department stores selling high order goods
have a higherthresholdthan those selling low order goods
such as newsagents. This means they need a higher number
of people to support them and make them profitable,
therefore they will only be found in larger settlements. It
also means that there are fewer big department stores than
small newsagents.
Therangeof a service or product is the maximum distance
people are prepared to travel to purchase it. The range of a
newspaper is much lower than an item of furniture for
example.

Urbanisation
Urban areas are growing faster in LEDCs than anywhere else

in the world, but this growth brings problems and

challenges, all of which require good management and
solutions.
Causes of urban growth
Although the process ofurbanisationhappens in
bothMEDCsandLEDCs, the fastest-growing cities in the
world are in LEDCs.
The reasons for the growth of urban areas include:
A lack of employment opportunities in the countryside.
Overpopulation and poorcrop yieldsare allpush factors- why
people leave the countryside.
Better paid jobs in the cities, an expected higher standard of
living, and more reliable food are allpull factors- why people
are attracted to the city.
People who migrate to towns and cities tend to be young and
so have higher birth rates in that age range.
Better medical conditions compared to the countryside mean
more successful births and a betterlife expectancy.
There are many problems associated with the rapid growth.
These include unplanned housing (squatter settlements/
shanty towns), dealing with urban waste, pollution and stress
on theinfrastructureand the city's services.

Urbanisation
LEDC

MEDC

Less economically

More economically

developed country.
Basically a poorer
country e.g.
Honduras, Uganda or
Bangladesh

developed country.
Basically a richer
country e.g. US, Japan
or UK

Urban Sprawl
Is the spread of building and houses into

an area that used to be conutryside.

Brownian Sites areas of land that have
previously been built on
Greenfield Sites areas of land that have
never been built on
Urban sprawl in MEDC have more
infrastructure,there are expensive houses
because they built out of good
materials,area planed by goverment
Urban sprawl inLEDC have poor
infrastucture,area planed by
people,cheap houses because they build
out of bad materials

Problems of Urban
Sprawl
Traffic congestion
Air Pollution
Agricultural land
Cultural loss