Settlement Geography: Rural Patterns, Urban Functions and Hierarchy
Settlement Geography studies where people live, why settlements take particular shapes, and how urban places are classified and linked. The exam tests site and situation, rural settlement patterns, census definitions of urban places, functional classification and central place ideas.
Rural and urban basics
- Compact settlements cluster around water, defence or fertile plains; dispersed settlements occur in hilly, forested or pastoral areas; linear settlements follow roads, rivers or canals.
- A census town in India must satisfy three conditions: population of at least 5,000; density of at least 400 persons/km²; and at least 75% of male main workers in non-agricultural work.
- A million city has over one million people. An urban agglomeration includes a core city and adjoining outgrowths. A conurbation is a continuous urban area formed by merging cities, such as parts of the Mumbai region.
- Central place theory explains service centres through range and threshold. Christaller's hierarchy assumes evenly spread population, uniform transport and central places serving hexagonal territories.
Worked example
A settlement has 6,000 people, density 500 persons/km², and 80% of male main workers in non-agricultural jobs. It meets all three census-town tests: population above 5,000, density above 400, and non-agricultural male workforce above 75%. If the non-agricultural share were 60%, it would fail the workforce test and remain a village for census purposes. The reasoning is that all three criteria must be satisfied together, not just population size.
Traps
A municipal corporation is an administrative unit, not the same as a census town. An urban agglomeration is wider than a city proper. Central place theory is a model, not a description of every local market. Dispersed settlement does not mean low development.