Rural and Urban Settlements

Rural and Urban Settlements

Settlement

Settlement means cluster of houses or huts of any type or size where human beings live.

Settlement refers to any collection of dwellings, ranging from a small village with two or three families to large cities.

Types of settlements:

1. Rural Settlement
2. Urban Settlement

Rural Settlements: are such where the people derive their earning from primary occupation that is mainly agriculture and the number of houses as well as population including the density remains less. The houses are mainly built with the help of locally available raw materials.

Urban Settlements: are such where the people derive their earning from secondary and tertiary occupation that is mainly from manufacturing of goods as well as management. Here the density population, number of houses and number of people living in area, all remain high. The houses built in urban settlement are mainly built up of concrete and the materials are generally hired from other places.

Types of Settlement pattern

1. Nucleated Settlement
2. Dispersed Settlement
3. Linear Settlement

A nucleated settlement is one in which people live in houses clustered together surrounding by cultivated lands.

The nucleated settlement are found in

1. Northern part of Bhutan
2. Central part of Bhutan
3. North west part of Bhutan and
4. North eastern part of Bhutan.

Reasons for keeping the livestock in the ground floor are

1. To protect the animals from rain and cold especially during winter
2. To keep away from the predators
3. To collect dung for preparing manure for the fields
4. Economic use of space and labour

Keeping animals in the lower floor is hazardous to health

This is because there is no proper arrangement for the collection and disposal of domestic waste such as dung in nucleated settlement. Hence these substance spread on the ground floor for several days and thus pollute the environment by foul smell and releasing harmful gases. In addition, the substances remain inviting many disease carrying insects causing diarrhea, dysentery etc.

Advantages of Nucleated Settlement	Disadvantages of Nucleated Settlement
People live together and lead a social life Joint labour services are easily available Easy for government to facilitate	Social problems like quarrel are frequent There is acute shortage of labour, water, infertile soil etc.

Dispersed Settlement refers to one in which people live in houses scattered over a vast area.

Seasonal migration is normally not practiced in dispersed settlement because farmers build sheds close to their houses and can easily take the herds to the nearby forest pasture. Moreover, dispersed settlements are located far away from roads and towns which do not permit the farmers to take up casual employment during slack agricultural season.

Difference between nucleated and dispersed settlement

Nucleated Settlement	Dispersed Settlement
People live together and lead a social life	People lead isolated life
Fields in nucleated settlement are small	Fields in nucleated settlement are large
Streets are generally dirty	Normally neat and clean

Linear Settlement: Settlements which are situated along the roads are called linear settlement

At first, they built small temporary huts at the terminal points on roadside. Gradually, they began to use these points as permanent settlements and more people join them to increase the number houses along the roads. They also began to cultivate land along the roadside. Some have put up restaurants and shops to serve both travellers and inhabitant in and around the area. This trend slowly gave rise to a linear pattern of settlement.

Mi-Throm refers to a large gathering of people from rural areas at the festivals.

Festivals such as tshechu are normally conducted in dzongs which attract large number of people from far and near places. Moreover, dzongs are occupied by few officials as well as the monks. Thus, dzongs act as a centre of Mi-Throm.

Urbanization refers to a process whereby people from rural area move to urban centres and the traditional society transformed.

Rate of urbanization: The change in the percentage of the population living in town over time is called rate of urbanization.

Factors causing rapid urbanization in Bhutan

i. Site and situation of the place: Dzongs provided an ideal site for the development of urban centres in Bhutan. When government offices were established in dzongs and with the expansion development programmes in Bhutan, the population living in and around increased considerably. Slowly, town came up around Dzong.

ii. Increased Service facilities: With the increase in health facilities, education facilities, road transport, shopping centres, settlement gradually grew into urban centres.

iii. Growth of trade and transport: Some urban centres were established in Bhutan due to growth of trade and transport. The increasing trade within the country coupled with network of transport brought about development in urban centres.

Types of Towns

i. Administrative Town: Towns and cities that develop as a result of administrative function is called administrative towns. E.g Thimphu and Trongsa. 

ii. Trade Town: Towns and cities that develop as a result of trade activities are called trade towns. Samdrup Jongkhar and Phuentsholing are example of trade town.

iii. Industrial Town: Towns and cities that develop as a result of industrial activity. E.g: Gomtu and Pasakha

iv. Educational Town: The towns develops as a result of educational centres such as monasteries, schools, colleges etc give rise to towns. Such towns are called educational towns.

Functional Zones

Central Business District (CBD)

Residential Area

Industrial Area

Shopping Centre

Recreational Area

Central Business District (CBD)

The central business district is the heart of urban community where the commercial, social and civic activities are concentrated. In other words, central business district is the centrally located zone and characterized by tall buildings, big shopping complexes and administrative offices.

The central business district of Thimphu

1. The administrative area in and around Tashi Chodzong
2. Commercial district in the area around the clock tower.

Hierarchy of Settlement: A system of grading the various towns of human settlements according to size is called hierarchy of settlements.

Central Place: A settlement which provides goods and services is called a central place. German geographer Walter Christaller in 1933 first put forward the theory.

Catchment Area- The certain surroundings settlements influenced by the central place is known as catchment area.

Order of goods- It is the range of goods and services provided at different central place.

Threshold Population: The minimum number of people in a region required to support a particular shop or service is called threshold population.

Assumption of Christaller’s Theory

1. All settlements are on a uniformly level area
2. The density of population is equal everywhere
3. Transport services and cost of travelling will be the same in any direction 

 Problems of urbanization

1. Urban sprawl
2. Social problems
3. Housing problems
4. Economic problems
5. Waste disposal problem
6. Water supply problem
7. Sewage problem

Urban Sprawl: is the spreading out of urban areas into surrounding farming lands.

Green Belt Zone: is an area on the outer edge of the city in which it is illegal to build houses.

The most important danger for limiting the expansion for a town by green belt zone is that people will be encourage to build blocks of apartment towers which in turn may create many social problems.

Social problems associated with urbanization are-

1. Sound pollution
2. Traffic congestion

Squatter settlement:

A settlement which grown up without planning such as temporary sheds made of tin, mats, torn cloths etc in city region is called squatter settlement.

Reasons for people migrating from rural to urban area are:

1. Employment opportunities
2. Educational facilities
3. Medical facilities
4. Fixed working hours
5. Regular and higher wages
6. Better amenities of living

Measures to stop migration:

1. Set up small scale firms by the government to provide job to rural people
2. Provide better educational and health facilities in rural areas
3. Construct roads to link rural areas with the nearest towns or market for sale of agriculture products.

Disadvantages for people living in rural areas:

1. Appalling poverty
2. Unbearable unemployment
3. Low and uncertain wages
4. Uneconomic land holdings
5. Poor facilities for education, health etc.

Note From Admin: The given notes could contain some errors and certain definitions may not be correct. Please refer your Text Book for correct information.