How do settlements change over time?
Asked by: Edgar Gerlach | Last update: August 31, 2025Score: 5/5 (19 votes)
Population settlements change over time primarily due to economic, social, and environmental factors. In the past, people settled near resources such as water, fertile land, and minerals. These factors allowed them to farm, fish, and extract minerals—activities that formed the basis of survival and economy.
How have settlements changed over time?
All settlements change and develop over time, with new roads, railway lines, homes and other buildings being developed. Comparing old and modern photographs and maps of local streets and buildings reveal how they have changed.
What are the reasons for the change of settlement?
Lack of employment in rural areas is the main reason for the migration from rural to urban occurs. In urban areas, there are more employment opportunities due to the factories and industries.
What causes settlements to change?
Environmental factors such as climate change can force settlement pattern changes by making areas uninhabitable, leading to mass migrations. Governments may implement forced settlement changes for various reasons, including economic development, security concerns, or land reclamation projects.
How did settlements evolve?
Upto 10,000 B.C., humans lived in caves or treetops or tree houses. Between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C., humans learnt the art of cultivating plants. Gradually human beings started settling near the fields they cultivated and built huts with locally available material such as mud, bamboo, thatch etc.
Evolution of settlements
How do settlements grow?
resources – many settlements developed close to where natural resources could be found. accessibility – accessibility can be increased by the presence of roads or water bodies, allowing a settlement to grow through trade or migration.
Why do settlements develop differently?
Relationships be- tween settlements are shaped by trade and the movements of raw materials, finished products, people, capital, and ideas. Patterns of settlement across Earth's surface differ markedly from region to region and place to place. Settlement patterns change through time.
How did settlements develop?
The earliest humans moved from place to place to find food. Eventually, some people stopped roaming and began to settle in one place. They built homes and grew their own crops on the land around them.
How does a town grow?
This phenomenon is influenced by various factors including migration, economic opportunities, and urban planning policies. As cities grow, they often experience changes in land use, increased demand for housing, and the development of transportation networks.
What are the reasons for settlement growth?
Growth of settlements
Raw materials - multiplier effect, more investment means more opportunities, which attracts people to the area, therefore, there is growth within the settlement. Fertile land allows for excess to be sold and non-farming services can be supported, allowing for the natural growth of a settlement.
What factors have influenced the settlement?
- Relief – Humans prefer to settle in plain areas than hilly areas.
- Soil – Fertile soils are suitable for human settlements.
- Climate- Settlements can develop in moderate favourable climatic conditions.
- Water - People are attracted to good-quality water.
What are the three reasons for settlement?
Explain the importance of the Charter of 1732, including the reasons for settlement (philanthropy, economics, and defense).
What are four reasons why there is an increase in informal settlements in South Africa?
Informal settlements have continued to grow in the South African spatial landscape due to urbanisation, population growth, the existing housing backlog and migration to urban areas to seek employment opportunities (Weakley, 2014; Richards, O'Leary & Mutsonziwa, 2007).
What processes have caused changes in settlement patterns over time?
Some of the processes driving the physical changes in human settlements are population and economic growth, rural-urban migration, and in-situ urban transformation that also includes the envelopment of small settlements by larger ones and land-expansive development.
What is the main cause of settlement?
The soils react differently over time but the 3 major causes of settlement are: drying and shrinking of the soils, wetting and softening of soil and poorly compacted fill soil.
What are the impacts of settlements?
Large cities and towns use extensive land areas, which alter the natural state of land, degrade environmental integrity, fragment ecosystems and threaten biodiversity. Outward sprawl also destroys valuable agricultural land; They place high demands on non-renewable resources and have high water and energy needs.
What type of change happens to settlements?
Economic change - Positive economic changes can lead to the growth and expansion of a settlement, while negative changes can lead to decline, depopulation, and abandonment. Political influences - Policies and actions of government can drive settlement change.
What helps a town grow?
- Understanding the Current Economic Landscape. ...
- Building a Strong Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. ...
- Leveraging Municipal Resources and Infrastructure. ...
- Investing in Community Amenities and Quality of Life. ...
- Marketing and Promoting the Town.
What are the reasons for the growth of a large settlement?
Causes of growth
Settlements grow and become cities for three reasons: A settlement is reclassified as a city. Natural increase (birth rate is higher than death rate) causing the settlement to grow into a city. Migration into a settlement makes it grow into a city.
How did settlements grow into cities?
The Industrial Revolution caused towns to turn into cities, and existing cities to swell, both in terms of population—with new arrivals from Europe and rural areas of the United States—as well as their geographic footprint, now that they were home to factories and other buildings required in manufacturing.
What are the three types of settlement?
Geographers study settlements because it is a reflection of the relationship between humans and their environment. These patterns are also used to project future settlement development. There are three main settlement patterns: nucleated, linear and dispersed.
Where do settlements grow?
Linear settlements grow in a line, often along roads, river valleys or the coast. Nucleated settlements have buildings grouped close together and are found at cross roads or are used for defence purposes. Dispersed settlements have individual buildings spread out, and are often found in rural areas.
Where did humans first settle?
Middle Paleolithic. Before Homo sapiens, Homo erectus had already spread throughout Africa and non-Arctic Eurasia by about one million years ago. The oldest known evidence for anatomically modern humans (as of 2017) are fossils found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dated about 360,000 years old.
What influences people to build settlements?
- Body of water (transportation routes, water for drinking and farming)
- Flat land (easy to build)
- Fertile soil (for crops)
- Forests (timber and housing)
What are the four settlements?
The four main types of settlements are urban, rural, compact, and dispersed. Urban settlements are densely populated and are mostly non-agricultural. They are known as cities or metropolises and are the most populated type of settlement. These settlements take up the most land, resources, and services.