Human Settlement Essay

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“Human Settlement Patterns”
A human settlement can be defined as any gathering of human dwellings from several houses grouped together to large cities with millions of dwellings. Throughout history, human settlements have different shapes, geographical locations and purposes. The settlements can be classified as rural and urban settlements. Urban areas involve towns and cities, rural areas include villages and small settlements (Gilchrist & Jeffs, 2001).
Ancient people preferred to settle near rivers and near available resources in the region. Thus, researchers admit that ancient cities and modern settlements follow the same rules. The main patterns are a dispersed settlement, a linear settlement, and a nucleated settlement. A dispersed settlement means the diffusion of houses over the large geographical area. Usually, a dispersed settlement is rural by its nature and it lacks any form of grouping: houses do not have any central place around a market or a religious building. It developed in hilly areas, extensive flatlands and plains. Villages in ancient England are one of the best examples of such type of settlement patterns (Atkin & Rykwert, 2005). A linear settlement means grouping of houses along the line. Such settlements appeared along rivers or coastal lines. Today, such settlements appear near roads, railway tracks, etc. This type of settlement is found in both rural and urban areas and usually small to medium-sized settlement. The examples of this type of settlement are Hong Kong, Victoria City, South Port in England. A nucleated settlement means grouping of dwellings around one center, a nucleus. Usually, these settlements appeared near roads intersections or focal points of a certain area. Market, religious building,...

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...oblem than is poverty. At no time during the years examined has poverty been seen as one of the crucial problems facing the nation by more than 6 percent of the population. The results of these problems are high criminal activity in low income regions and increased prison population (Merrick, 2002). Lack of social support and poor welfare policies lead to poverty among low income populations. It is difficult to eliminate barriers and cultural prejudices existing in the society. In other words, cultural and social minority are destined to live in poverty working full-time. Some researchers underline that government interventions should change behavior in all of the social classes and thus brought about disruption in society. The values of the work ethic and the free market system have been forgotten, as the society has become more interested in short term benefits.

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