Settlement for 'AS' Students

Don't forget the GEOFILES that we have too ! and also the Geography Review archive

a) The size and location of settlements vary, and distinct patterns can be identified

Focus on patterns / distribution / hierarchies and market areas. Why aren't all places large ? Why are some places small ? Why does Hunstanton have a Tesco despite its population ? Where do people go on the train from King's Lynn in the morning ? What functions do places have ? How do those functions change over time ?

Focus on land use models, and critiques of the models. Application to real world. Kino models of city development.

What changes take place in MEDC / LEDC cities ? What factors influence the rate of change ? Where are those changes most strongly felt ?

URBANISATION

Students need to be familiar with some key ideas regarding the reasons why cities grow, and how these reasons have altered during this century, which will soon see a change to a world which is predominantly URBAN. Remember that if you're not sure what urban is, how can you be certain of the rate of urbanisation ? Which city is the biggest in the world ?

Remember that the contemporary reasons for migration may not always have been the case: cities existed before the industrial revolution.

Try also to develop the idea of PUSH and PULL a little further. Essentially, voluntary migration is often driven by aspirational concerns: the feeling that the move will be for the better.

We have used Photo Jam to introduce students to Sheffield, and explore Cloke's idea of a rural-urban continuum.

Students need to be aware of the issues relating to SITE, SITUATION, SIZE, SERVICES and all those other 'S' words...

URBAN LAND USE

It's worth encouraging students to CRITICALLY EVALUATE the models that they use. What aspects are accurate, what assumptions have been made which compromise their usefulness. What modern trends have perhaps superseded some of the statements in the original model (bearing in mind that some urban models are rather dated...)

URBANISATION

Try this S-COOL page first of all. It gives a preview of the main terms and introduces you to the main concepts involved. There are also similar notes on the other REVISION sites which you will be familiar with.

In discussing cities, the idea of a Megalopolis is an important concept. Mega = big or large; polis =inhabited place

In the 1950's, the French geographer, Jean Gottmann, recognized a peculiar thing happening along the east coast of the United States. He saw that a number of large cities were growing outward, consuming the intervening farm land on their peripheries as they grew. Some of the places he saw this happening to were already not far from other large neighbours. Gottman thought that these places were actually consuming all the land betwen them and that it was only a matter of time before several large cities would actually coalesce and eliminate the intervening farmland. He looked at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington. His prediction was that ultimately all of these places would grow together into a single continuous urban structure. His name for this single city was Megalopolis, and it would be characterized by a continual string of urban activities, devoid of any intervening farm or rural environment. Came to be known as BOSNYWASH from the names of the places involved.

In the middle 1960's, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine published a special edition on cities. One of its features was a discussion of Megalopolis. It included a mosaic picture of Megalopolis that ran across the bottom of perhaps six or eight continuous pages. The concept had not yet quite been achieved because farmland was still evident between these places; but not much! More evident were suburban residential developments, shopping centers, highways, and similar character. Even today, anyone driving among these cities knows it is not one hundred percent urban yet.

Megalopolis is an immense concentration of population, amounting to roughly twenty percent of the total in America on just 2% of the land area. There are other similar areas in the United States, e.g SANSAN: San Francisco to San Diego.

URBAN LAND USE MODELS

"Where other cities are like fried eggs, with a discernible neat logic of 'centre' and 'outside', London is an enormous dish of scrambled eggs......so that the yolks and the white...ended up unevenly distributed across the plate"

A June 2004 report suggested that we are using the countryside in a different way, and that the countryside is evolving.

One of the changes in many rural areas is the decline in local services which is blamed to some extent on factors such as second homes and rising property prices generally. A whole raft of TV shows where people look to escape to the country and set up a new life have perhaps fuelled this dream that many city dwellers have: a recent book title 'Out of your townie mind' tried to prepare some of these people for the 'realities' of rural living.

Recently received a useful pack from the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) East of England - this has a focus on THE HYTHE CHALLENGE: A Sustainable Settlement for the Future - I haven't had a chance to look through this yet, but it has the potential to be a resource that we will use in the future. CD and 2 booklets guiding people through the ideas.

1. I have made good use of the excellent BBC URBAN PLANET resource on the news website which has a range of excellent resources. I have used the CASE STUDY materials and the mapping activities.

c) Calculation of Sphere of Influence using Breakpoint theory, and the problems with applying this in real world situations.

d) Nearest neighbour analysis - can use the exam paper example which you will be given...

e) Different land use models of town centre development (check out the INTERACTIVE one on GEOBYTES)

London is a WORLD CITY. It has prestige, high profile, high population and acts as a centre for numerous functions and processes.

This lesson is aimed at exploring the issues that London has had historically, and how it is coping with the modern issues such as pollution, traffic congestion, terrorist threats, immigration, civil unrest and the pressure of hosting the Olympics in 2012 (some issues already emerging there...)

There is a WORKSHEET to download which contains a task involving powerpoint and data collection.

Makes use of GeoFile 353 April 1999 produced by Garret Nagle, and Garret's book: "Changing Settlements" from the Nelson Focus on Geography series would also be useful.

a) Why did London develop in the way that it did ? - interesting notes on medieval land use patterns

A focus is on mentioning specific locations within London to use in the exam ultimately...

Article in 'The Guardian' in March 2007 suggested that London was the Capital city of the World. A good cover image showing a doctored London underground map.

This is a method of assessing the spatial distribution of points: whether they are clustered, spread out, or randomly distributed.

The value of the index varies from 0 (Clustered) to 1 (Random) to 2.15 (Evenly distributed)

The points could be anything from cities and settlements to people sat on a beach - which was the analogy I started with.

The formula is an easy one to remember, but it will always be provided as part of the exam paper.

Useful information in Garret Nagle's book about the growth of Manchester and the current move towards a renaissance.

For more information on the city, can I recommend the GA "Discovering Cities" book by Christopher Law.

1	Data Analysis Exercise	This is an exercise designed by former colleague Miss Davidson Students are given some mystery data and have to try to reach some meaning based on the evidence that they have from the data and the distribution that it exhibits. This was not used this year, as we started straight in with the ideas of urban.
2	Settlement Definitions of URBAN and RURAL Does urban mean towns and rural mean countryside ?	What do we mean by URBAN and RURAL. When does a place become URBAN ? What characteristics will it have ? Activity from Philip Allan pack: What is Urban ? Do tasks 1-3 from sheet. We looked at the different definitions of urban, Mapping exercise - when does King's Lynn end ?
3	Settlement Sites Past Question looking at settlements on higher land on either side of the Somerset Levels. We will use several past questions in this initial part of the course.	SITE SITUATION SIZE SERVICES Remember the difference between CITY FORMING and CITY SERVING services.
4	Greenfield or Brownfield ? Need to be aware of the benefits and drawbacks of developing both of these types of land. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/shaun_spiers/2007/03/next_week_david_miliband_will.html Article on building on Brownfield sites Also have very useful recent VIDEO looking at changes in Greenfield and Brownfield. Also need to consider the MILLENNIUM COMMUNITY in South Lynn.	Tabulate the information with reference to actual examples. Start with local examples. Source FLICKR images.
5	Exurbs and edge cities An excellent article from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine on the growth and development of ORLANDO, FLORIDA. This has great images in the original article: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0703/feature4/index.html You need to read this article !! Also keep an idea on the The Eldonian Village Project near Liverpool Group of people who refused to leave when the planners told them to, and have redeveloped the area over the years. Website: http://www.eldonians.org.uk/ Has some useful images to refer to...
6	An excellent FLICKR set of PARK HILL FLATS in Sheffield by Flickr User incurable hippie http://flickr.com/photos/hippie/sets/216780/	Why were high rise flats built ? When were they built ? What were the good and bad points about them as a way of re-housing people from slum areas ?
7	CURITIBA VIDEO Sustainable City - includes details on the role of the Mayor and the Green exchange. Also look at DONGTAN Sustainable City http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/will_the_dongta.php	Make sure that you read up on the city, and in particular the sustainable transport planning. This is a commonly used case study.
8	CAIRO VIDEO We had some home movies from YouTube which were quite amusing, but gave an impression of the chaos of the city... Cairo - a look at the long history and growth of the city - what physical landscapes restrict the growth of the city or encourage it in certain directions ?
9	RANK SIZE RULE Lorenz Curve plotting exercise	A site here with details on the RANK SIZE RULE.
10	Breakpoint Theory Plotting exercise based on local towns. A look at what we mean by breakpoints.

2.2 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS

URBANISATION

URBAN LAND USE

URBANISATION

URBAN LAND USE MODELS