1. SETTLEMENT AND URBAN
GROWTH
The location and growth of a settlement depends on its site and situation
What does site mean? It is the place where people decide to
locate a settlement
Then, the growth of a settlement depends on its location in relation with
natural resources and other settlements and human factors
Most of the settlements were created long time ago. They considered
certain location factors
2. LOCATION FACTORS
Be near a reliable supply of water (river or lakes) but be
away from marshy places in order to avoid floods
Locate a settlement in a defensive position (like at the
top of a hill)
Having materials for building their homes and develop
their economic activities
Have a supply of food and fuel for cooking and heating.
At the beginning, the main fuel was wood. Then, it was coal
Have a shelter from bad weather (like locating a settlement in a
valley)
Have access to other places
However, it was unlikely to have all those location factors at the same
time
3. Settlements have an evolution in its size, shape and the importance of
the location factors
Most of the times that evolution depends upon human factors, because
natural factors are less important nowadays
But the location factors are still visible.
We can analyze them either visiting the settlement or studying an OS
map
An OS map is a map made by the government which has a lot of human
and physical information
4. FUNCTIONS OF A SETTLEMENT
The term function describes what a settlement (a city, a town or a
village) did, or still does. Nowadays, settlements ususally have more
than one function.
ADMINISTRATIVE:
Centre from which the surrounding area can be controlled (capital, city,
county town)
Examples:
Madrid (Spain)
Valladolid (Castilla y León)
Burgos (Province of Burgos)
DEFENSIVE
Protecting itself or the sorrounding area
More common in the previous centuries:
Example:
Ávila
Gibraltar
5. MINING
Extracting or using a local resource (coal or iron)
Settlements in Asturias, the north of Palencia and León
INDUSTRIAL
Where raw materials are processed (steel) or processed goods are
assembled (cars)
Examples:
Palencia (Fasa Renault)
Bilbao
TOURIST RESORT
Contains amenities that attract visitors (cultural sites, coasts, theme
parks)
Benidorm
Barcelona
Segovia
6. EDUCATIONAL
When an university is the main function of the city
Other times, an educational settlement has a great historic and artistic
heritage
Examples:
Salamanca
Cambridge
Oxford
RELIGIOUS
Centre of religious buildings or place of worship
Examples:
The Vatican
Santiago de Compostela
Silos
7. RESIDENTIAL
Where many people live but very few actually work. They are
sometimes suburbanised villages.
Examples:
Leganés (Madrid)
Getafe (Madrid)
Sabadel (Barcelona)
PORT
Where goods and people can be moved by water (river, lake or
sea)
Examples:
Vigo
Cádiz
Hamburg
Rotterdam
8. MARKET TOWN
Collection and distribution centre for farm produce from
the surrounding area.
More common in the previous centuries
Medina del Campo
ROUTE CENTRE
Where several routes meet
(roads or rails)
Miranda de Ebro
9. Like the size, the shape and the importance of the location
factors change throughout history, the function of a settlement
also change.
Most settlements, especially those that are larger, tend to be multi-functional.
They have several functions even if one or two tend to predominate
For example: DURHAM
-At the beginning it was a defensive settlement
-Then, it was also a religious centre due to its cathedral, an educational
centre due to its university and a market town. It was also an
adminsitrative centre because it is the capital of a county
-Those functions are still important for this city
- Nowadays, Durham has other functions because it is a residential
centre as well as a route and tourist centre
10. WHAT IS THE SETTLEMENT
HIERARCHY?
Cities are organised according to a hierarchy.
This hierarchy puts in order the cities of a
country depending on:
Population size
Distance apart
Range and number of services
Population size: The larger the settlement the fewer there will be of
those settlements
Distant apart: The larger the settlement the further it will be from other
large settlements
Range and number of services: The larger the settlement the more
services it will be provide
11. As you move up the hierarchy, the size of the settlement and
the distance between similar sized settlements increases. As
you can see from the diagram, there are more cities than
conurbations, more towns than cities and more villages than
towns.
The number of services that a settlement provides increases
with settlement size.
12. HIERARCHY IN THE UK AND IN SPAIN
1. One capital LONDON MADRID
1.B Two or three conurbations BIRMINGHAM
and surroundings
SEVILLA
and surroundings
2. Cities LIVERPOOL BURGOS
3. Large towns LINCOLN MIRANDA DE EBRO
4. Small towns OLDBURY BRIVIESCA
5. Villages FORDWICH CASTROJERIZ
6. Hamlets AUSKERRY VILLAMEDIANILLA
13. SERVICES
CONURBATIONS Government offices, several universities,
main line railway stations, international
airport, large and specialist hospitals,
national events
CITIES County hall, cathedral, luxury hotel,
university, many cinemas, threatres,
hospitals, main railway station, several
football teams
LARGE TOWNS Small hospital, large restaurants, hotels,
cinema and small theatre, several secondary
schools, large bus and railway stations, large
football team
SMALL TOWNS Town hall, doctor, several churches, several
public houses, cafés and restaurants, small
secondary school, railway station, bus
station, football team
VILLAGES Village hall, church, public house, small
primary school
HAMLETS Public telephone
ALL PLACES IN THE HIERARCHY HAVE ALL SERVICES OF THE SETTLEMENTS BELOW THEM
14. THE URBAN MODELS
Each city or town has a different shape due to:
• Its evolution
• Its location factors
• Its history
• Its function
But many cities and towns shared a common pattern and we can set
models.
In cities from the United Kingdom and other Occidental countries, one
of the most common model was the “Burguess model” since the
Industrial Revolution.
Even though, this model has changed since those times
15. • Geographers have put models of land use to show the organization
of a 'typical' city is. One of the most famous of these is the Burgess or
concentric zone model.
• This model is based on the idea that land values are highest in the
centre of a town or city, which is called the CBD. This is because
competition is higher in the central part of a settlement.
• Then, there is a ring where are located the factories
• The second ring is the place where the workers used to live. The
second and the third ring are called the “Inner City”
• The third ring is the place where the middle class used to live. Their
houses were more expensive than the houses from the working class
• Finally, there is a last ring where the high class used to live far from
the factories and the low class, but linked to the CBD by train or
roads.
16. However, there are limits to the Burgess model:
The model is now quite old and was developed before the advent of mass
car ownership.
New working and housing trends have emerged since the model was
developed. Many people now choose to live and work outside the city on
the urban fringe - a phenomenon that is not reflected in the Burgess
model.
Some areas of the cities, like the industrial ones, have been demolished in
the last decades
Every city is different. There is no such thing as a typical city.
Another urban model is the Hoyt model.
This is based on the circles on the
Burgess model, but adds sectors of
similar land uses concentrated in parts
of the city. Notice how some zones, like
the factories, radiate out from the CBD.
This is probably following the line of a
main road or a railway.
17.
18. C.B.D. It is the Central Business District
It has offices, administrative services and
shops
It also includes the old city with its monuments
Transitional zone (Inner City)
Factories
Low class residential (Inner City)
The houses of the workers. They were the
cheapest ones
Medium class residential
High class residential. They are the most expensive
houses
19. CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
LOCATION
FUNCTION
ACCESSIBILITY
LAND VALUES
IN THE CITY CENTRE
OFFICES, SHOPS, ADMINISTRATIVE
BUILDINGS AND SOME TOURISTIC PLACES
IT IS LINKED TO THE REST OF THE CITY BY
THE MAIN ROADS AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT
LIKE BUSES AND UNDERGROUND
THEY ARE THE HIGHEST OF THE CITY
BECAUSE THE SPACE IS LIMITED AND THERE
IS A BIG COMPETITION TO BUILD IN THIS
ZONE OR TO BUY BUILDINGS THERE.
21. THE INNER CITY LOCATION
NEXT TO THE CBD
IT WAS LOCATED ON THE EDGE OF THE CITY IN THE XIX CENTURY.
HOWEVER, NOWADAYS IT IS LOCATED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY
AND FOR THAT REASON THIS PLACE IS CALLED “INNER CITY”
22. FUNCTION
FACTORIES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS FOR THE WORKERS.
FACTORIES NEEDED WORKERS AND THOSE PEOPLE NEEDED
PLACES TO LIVE NEIGHBOURHOODS OF A HIGH DENSITY OF
HOUSES WERE BUILT INSIDE OF A GRID-IRON PATTERN
THERE WERE FEW SHOPS FOR THE WORKERS AND THEY DID
NOT HAVE OPEN SPACES LIKE PARKS OR SQUARES
HOWEVER, NOWADAYS THE FEATURES OF INNER CITY HAVE
CHANGED DUE TO THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMIC
MODEL
23. PROBLEMS IN THE INNER CITY FOR THE WORKERS
• High density of buildings and lack of open
spaces (parks and squares)
• Old lower-cost housing from the nineteenth
• Slum housing to save space
• When industries declined, unemployment
increased and there were many social problems
• Lack of shopping facilities and public services
• High levels of air pollution from traffic and
factories
24. ACCESSIBILITY
IT WAS LINKED BY TRAIN TO MINES OR OTHER FACTORIES
IN THE COUNTRY.
THE PRODUCTS FROM FACTORIES WERE CARRIED TO THE
SHOPS OF THE CITY CENTRE BY ROADS
WORKERS DID NOT LEAVE THIS ZONE AND THEY WENT TO
THE FACTORIES BY FOOT
LAND VALUES
THEY WERE VERY LOW BECAUSE THERE WERE A LOT OF SPACE
COMPANIES USUALLY BUILT HOUSES FOR THE WORKERS, SO
THEY WANTED TO SAVE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE.
THAT IS THE REASON THAT THOSE NEIGHBOURHOODS WERE
TOTALLY OVERCROWDED AND THE QUALITY OF THE HOUSES
WAS VERY POOR
25. NOWADAYS
MOST OF THE OLD INNER HOUSES AND FACTORIES HAVE BEEN
DEMOLISHED
GOVERNMENTS HAVE BUILT SOCIAL FLATS WHERE MANY
PEOPLE LIVE NOWADAYS WITH MORE FACILITIES.
THEY CHANGED THE HOUSES FOR THE FLATS DUE TO THE
INCREASED OF THE POPULATION
ANYWAY, THERE ARE MANY DANGEROUS NEIGHBOURHOODS IN
THESE PLACES DUE TO LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES (JOBS AND
SERVICES) FOR THE PEOPLE
THERE ARE STILL SOME
FACTORIES IN THE INNER
CITY. HOWEVER, MOST OT
THEM ARE EMPTY BECAUSE
THEY HAVE BEEN CLOSED
26. However, some features from the Burguess model are still visible.
But obviously, there have been many changes
27. THE SUBURBS
The suburbs are the neighbourhoods which are next to the inner city
According to the Burgess model, they corresponded with the middle
class zone
28. THE SUBURBS = MEDIUM COST HOUSING =
MEDIUM CLASS HOUSING
29. AS MEDIUM CLASS INCREASED – DUE
TO THE CHANGE OF THE ECONOMY –
THE SIZE OF THE CITY GREW
NEW NEIGHBOURHOODS WITH MORE
FACILITIES, PUBLIC SERVICES AND
OPEN SPACES WERE BUILT.
THE QUALITY OF THE HOUSES WAS
ALSO HIGHER
EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE
THE VALUE OF THE LAND WAS LOWER
30. Suburbs have not got a bad connotation. On the contrary, they had
better standards of living than the inner city neighbourhoods
Since the end of the First World War, the British population increased
and the use of cars and the underground was more popular.
As a result, cities expanded and new houses were built in the former
middle class zone
31. The value of the land in that place was lower, so new neighbourhoods
had more space
That means...
More space for
Gardens and garage
each house
for houses
Wider streets and
open spaces (parks)
Shops and public
services located in
each neighbourhood
Better comunications to
the CBD by car or using
the underground
32. Even though, there is a difference between the neighbourhoods from
the 1930s and the those new neighbourhoods built since the end of the
Second World War
The first ones had private houses which were bigger and they were
mainly semi-detached houses
The second ones were smaller, they were not semi-detached and most
of them had shops in the first floor
33. THE RURAL-URBAN FRINGE
It is located at the edge of the city
Rural-Urban fringe means that it is a place between the city and the
countryside. It is common in the UK, but it is also popular in other
European countries
According to the Burgess model, it corresponded with the high class
residential or the last ring
34. However, there are two types of housing in this area
PRIVATE ESTATES OUTER CITY COUNCIL ESTATES
They are those houses from the
high class according to the
Burguess model.
They are the oldest in this area
They are the social flats built
by the government due to the
increase of the population
during the 1960
35. PRIVATE ESTATES
• Low density and high-quality housing
• Most houses are large and detached with
spacious gardens and often a double
garage
• Modern amenities: Central heating,
double-glazing and deluxe bathrooms and
kitchens
• The winding roads and numerous culs-de-sac
are usually wide, tree-lined and
relatively traffic free
36. OUTER CITY COUNCIL ESTATES
• High density and average-quality housing
• Created during the 1960’s and the 1970’s
as local councils cleared the worst inner
city areas and re-located residents on
large edge-of-city estates
• Housing was often in high-rise tower
blocks or low-rise flats
• Most homes were small and lacked
gardens and garages, but had modern
amenities such as a bathroom and kitchen
37. Both types of housing had open spaces because the value of the land –
far from the CBD – is cheap.
However, private states and outer city council estates are separated by
parks, lakes, motorways or railways, shopping centres or new factories
38. Why did governments decide to set the outer city council
states in the rural-urban fringe?
1. During the 1960s, British authorities cleared the worst inner city areas
2. People from those places – and immigrants who came in those years -
needed a new place to live
3. Authorities decided to build council states (viviendas de
protección oficial) for those people in cheap places
4. New housing were high flates with small homes as they did in the inner city
39. In the last decades, the rural-urban fringe has been used to build
new factories, shopping centres, hotels, airports and bussines
parks due to the low land value and the huge space available
