Transport, Communication, International Trade and Human Settlements (World)
Domain 4: World Transport, Communication, Trade and Human Settlements
The exam tests how movement of goods, people and information links regions, how trade is measured, and how settlements are classified and located.
Core rules
- Transport modes include road, rail, water, air and pipelines. Choice depends on distance, bulk, perishability, cost and accessibility.
- Communication moves information, not goods: postal services, telecom, internet and broadcasting. It can substitute for some travel but also generates new flows.
- International trade involves exports and imports. Balance of trade = exports minus imports; a deficit is not automatically harmful if imports are capital goods.
- Trade blocs and organisations reduce barriers: WTO rules, EU, ASEAN, SAARC and regional free-trade agreements.
- Settlements are rural or urban. Site is the actual location; situation is the settlement's relation to surrounding routes and resources.
- Urban settlements may be classified by function, size and morphology; million-plus cities and conurbations are major world nodes.
Worked example
A port city grows at a river mouth because its site offers a harbour and its situation links an inland hinterland to sea routes. If the port exports 80 billion and imports 100 billion, the trade deficit is 20 billion. That deficit may still support industry if imports are machinery. A good answer links site, situation, transport mode and trade effect.
Traps
Do not confuse communication with transport. Do not call every trade deficit a failure. Do not define rural and urban by population alone without the census or national criteria. Do not confuse site with situation.