Human Settlements

Wherever people live together (a cluster of huts, a market town, a sprawling metropolis) they create a human settlement. The study of settlements reveals how people relate to the land and to one another. It looks at how settlements are arranged and how they grow. As the world urbanises ever faster, understanding cities and their problems becomes increasingly important.

Settlements are broadly of two kinds:

• Rural settlements are villages whose people live mainly off the land: farming, herding, fishing and other primary activities. They are smaller and more closely tied to nature.
• Urban settlements are towns and cities whose people live mainly by non-farm work: industry, trade, services and administration. They are larger, denser and more specialised.

The line between them is drawn by population size and the kind of work people do. The exact definition varies between countries.

Rural settlements take different shapes, or patterns, depending on the land, water and history:

• Compact (clustered) settlements: houses built closely together, common in fertile plains and where people gather for security or shared water.
• Dispersed settlements: houses scattered far apart, common in hilly, forested or dry areas where farms are isolated.

Settlements also follow shapes such as linear (along a road or river), rectangular, circular or star-shaped, set by the terrain and routes.

Compact settlements are also called clustered or nucleated settlements. In India, the size, pattern and site of a village depend on the availability of water, the nature of the land, and social factors such as caste and community.

Urban settlements are classified by their main function, the chief activity that gives the town its character:

• Administrative towns (capitals, like Delhi).
• Industrial towns (manufacturing centres).
• Commercial towns (centres of trade).
• Mining towns, transport towns (ports, route junctions), and cultural or religious towns.

Many large cities perform several functions at once, but most begin with one dominant role.

India is still mainly a land of villages. Most Indians live in rural settlements and work in farming and related activities. Yet its towns and cities are growing fast.

In India, a place is officially counted as a census town if it meets three criteria. It must have a minimum population. It must reach a certain population density. A large share of its workforce must be in non-agricultural jobs.

Indian urban centres are also classified by size:

• Towns and cities: the smaller urban centres.
• Metropolitan cities: cities with over a million people.
• Mega-cities: the largest urban giants.

By function, Indian towns include administrative, industrial, commercial, port and educational towns.

The rapid growth of cities, especially in developing countries, brings serious problems of urbanisation:

• Housing shortages and the growth of slums where the poor live in crowded, unsafe conditions.
• Shortage of clean water, sanitation and electricity.
• Traffic congestion and pollution of air and water.
• Unemployment and pressure on jobs and services.

Urbanisation also brings real benefits: jobs, services, education and economic dynamism. In India it is rising rapidly as people migrate for work, and unplanned growth adds the unchecked spread of mega-cities to the list of problems.

Managing these problems is one of the great challenges of the modern world. It requires planning, affordable housing, public transport and basic services. For a fast-urbanising India, good city planning is one of the most pressing tasks.