Types of settlements

Settlements can be divided into two main types:

1. Urban; and
2. Rural.

Figure 1: Urban settlement

Figure 2: Rural settlement

By observing Figure 1 and 2, you can identify characteristics of settlements. Some of these characteristics are as follows:

1. Buildings in the urban settlement are close to each other compared to rural settlement. This situation is caused by a higher population density in urban areas than in rural areas;
2. Urban settlements are associated with better economic and social services than rural settlements.; and
3. Urban settlements are associated with construction of better and modern houses compared to rural settlements.

Settlements can be built in a variety of patterns. These patterns are divided into three categories.

1. The first pattern is linear settlement. In this settlement pattern, houses are built along the road, railway, lake or river. This pattern is influenced by access to linear infrastructure such as road, railway line, and water ways as well as business opportunities.

   Figure 3: Linear settlement

   

2. The second type of settlement pattern is of houses built close to each other in one place. This type of settlement pattern is known as nucleated or clustered settlement. The houses are built in clusters in order to be closer to the existing social services such as schools and hospitals. Also, this form of settlement is found on centres of economic activities such as markets, industries, mining, and tourism. Often these social services and economic activities are limited and very essential; hence causing people to live closer to them.

   Figure 4: Nucleated settlement

   

3. The third type of settlement pattern is known as dispersed or scattered settlement. This is caused by the availability of sufficient land that makes people build their houses in a scattered form so as to be surrounded by farms. All in all, the three types of settlement patterns are affected by geographical factors such as landform, soil fertility, natural hazards, land and conservation laws.

   Figure 5: Scattered settlement

   

Population and settlements in a particular area play an important role on production activities. In this section, you will learn how population size affects production activities of a particular area as explained below.

Production activities depend on the number of people living in a particular area. When an area has a low population (underpopulated) than the available resources, these resources will be underutilised. This leads to stagnation of the economy and other development activities. A small population in an area can affect production activities in a variety of ways. Some of the effects include:

1. Shortage of manpower for production activities such as agriculture and industry;
2. Shortage of goods and markets in a particular area: a small population normally has low purchasing power. This situation can lead to low demand of the goods produced. Thus, production decreases to correspond with the market size. The result of this situation is economic stagnation;
3. Underutilisation of resources, such as minerals, land, wildlife, water and forests: small population results in underutilisation of land and other resources. This situation makes people unable to achieve the targeted development goals;
4. Poor living conditions: due to low production, people's living standards may also be poor; and
5. Shifting cultivation and informal settlements: The existence of a small population in a large area causes people to engage in shifting cultivation and informal settlements. People burn forests and cut down trees to clear land for agriculture and housing. This leads to soil erosion and shortage of rainfall; hence low production.

Underpopulation can also be an advantage to the community to achieve sustainable development if their resources are utilised appropriately.

When an area is overpopulated, its population size exceeds the available resources. This affects production activities. People overutilise the available resources than their capacity to regenerate. High population of an area especially when majority have low education can affect the quality of production activities. Some of these effects are as follows:

1. Environmental degradation: a high population causes environmental degradation because demands exceed the capacity of the available resources leading to shortage of resources such as land, water and wildlife. This situation may lead to soil erosion, thus reducing productivity in a cultivated land;
2. A high population causes pollution due to the increased production and consumption activities that are taking place in the area;
3. Decline or depletion of resources: a high population causes overutilisation of existing resources such as minerals and land. This leads to depletion, decline or deterioration of these resources;
4. Increased cost of social services: a high population requires a lot of money for the government to provide social services, such as education, health, transport and other services;
5. Unemployment: As the population increases more than the economic activities, it affects the labour market. This situation leads to the problem of unemployment; and
6. Shortage of land and food: as the population increases, farms are changed into residential areas. This causes the decline in agricultural land and food production. This situation leads to food shortages in the country or a particular region. For example, Kilimanjaro Region faces land shortages due to high population and settlements.

Urban settlements have a large population size in a small area, thus houses are crowded. Towns vary in the way they are planned and constructed. Towns can be planned or unplanned. Towns can grow vertically by constructing storey buildings. They also grow horizontally by extending constructed areas. These conditions of urban construction and growth affect production as follows:

1. Urban planning: planned towns facilitate production activities as they are built according to land requirements for various production activities and service delivery. Unplanned settlements affect production because the layout does not consider different production needs. They often lead to conflict in land use hence failing to conduct some economic activities. Similarly, informal settlements affect the construction of infrastructure to facilitate production activities and service delivery. This situation hinders production and service delivery, thus urban poverty increases; and
2. Growth of towns: vertical and horizontal growth of towns has different effects on production. When towns grow vertically, construction of storeys cause overcrowding of people in a small area. This can facilitate the construction of infrastructure and service delivery. Crowded areas also provide a lot of business opportunities. But horizontal expansion of towns increases the cost of constructing infrastructures and service delivery. Many sub-urban areas lack infrastructure and services to facilitate production activities. This situation affects production and makes the urban economy poor.

Rural settlements are relatively underpopulated compared to urban settlements. Some of the rural settlements are scattered whereas, others are nucleated. All these types of settlements are found in Tanzania, although nucleated settlements are more common because of the socialism and self-reliance policy of 1970's that emphasised formation of Ujamaa villages.

These settlement patterns have different effects on production activities in rural areas. In overcrowded villages, distance between houses is short because houses are close to each other. The distance between houses and workplaces such as farms, however, is long. In scattered settlements, there is a long distance between residential areas. Since houses are built on farms, the distance between houses and farms or workplaces is short. Rural settlements affect production as follows:

1. Long distances between houses and farms: this affects agriculture as it becomes more expensive and difficult to maintain the farms if the farmer has to walk long distances back and forth. This affects transportation of agricultural inputs to the farm and of crops from the farm to homes and to the market. Also, it affects the farmer's ability to manage efficient use of resources;
2. Closeness of the houses: closeness of houses has the advantage of facilitating construction of both physical and social infrastructures as well as, provision of production services. To improve agriculture, people need to be empowered by having infrastructures such as roads and markets. They also need access to services such as health. Education on the best way to use these resources is also very important. All these are easily done if people's residents are close to each other. Also, administrative services and community participation become much easier to execute;
3. Long distances between houses: If houses are scattered, construction of infrastructures and provision of social services will be affected, as it will be more expensive. This will undermine efficient use of resources and affect production; and
4. Short distances between settlements and farms: When a home is closer to the farm, it simplifies production. The farmers spend less time and energy to reach the work place and to access other services such as energy, water and construction materials.