Welcome to Settlement Change: AS 2 Human Geography
Welcome to your study notes for Settlement Change (Topic 2A of AS 2: Human Geography for CCEA Geography 3910). Whether you are already confident in human geography or find spatial models a bit overwhelming, these notes will guide you step-by-step through the core ideas, models, and real-world processes you need for your exam.
Why is this topic important?
Settlements are never static. Towns, cities, and villages grow, shrink, and transform in response to human choices, technology, and economic forces. Understanding these shifts helps us make sense of the landscapes we live in every day.
Exam Snapshot:
• AS Unit 2: Contributes 40% of your AS award and 16% of your overall A Level award.
• Exam Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Structure: Section A (compulsory short-structured questions) and Section B (extended writing / essay questions requiring detailed case study application).
1. Settlement Hierarchies and Core Concepts
Let's start with the basics. What exactly do we mean by settlement change and hierarchy?
Core Definitions:
• Settlement Change: The continuous alteration, expansion, transition, or decline of human settlements across time and space. It is driven by demographic shifts, economic forces, planning decisions, technological development, and environmental factors.
• Settlement Hierarchy: The arrangement of settlements into distinct ranks based on three main factors: population size, the range of functions/services provided, and their geographic sphere of influence.
The Settlement Hierarchy Order
Settlements are organized in ascending order (from smallest to largest):
Isolated dwelling / farmstead \( \rightarrow \) Hamlet \( \rightarrow \) Village \( \rightarrow \) Small market town \( \rightarrow \) Large town \( \rightarrow \) City \( \rightarrow \) Conurbation / Primate City.
Key Rules of the Hierarchy
As you move up the settlement hierarchy ladder, clear patterns emerge:
1. Number of settlements decreases: There are thousands of small hamlets and villages, but only a few large cities or conurbations.
2. Population size increases: Each step up accommodates more people.
3. Frequency of high-order goods increases: Large cities offer specialized services (like universities and specialist hospitals) that small villages cannot support.
4. Spacing between settlements widens: Small villages are close together, whereas major cities are separated by large distances.
Memory Trick to Remember the Hierarchy Ladder:
"Isolated Homes Visit Small Local City Centres"
(Isolated dwelling \( \rightarrow \) Hamlet \( \rightarrow \) Village \( \rightarrow \) Small market town \( \rightarrow \) Large town \( \rightarrow \) City \( \rightarrow \) Conurbation).
Key Takeaway: The higher a settlement sits in the hierarchy, the larger its population, the more specialized its services, and the further away it is from another settlement of equal rank.
---2. Theoretical Foundations: Central Place Theory (CPT)
To explain why settlements are arranged in these hierarchies, geographer Walter Christaller developed the Central Place Theory. Don't worry if this sounds theoretical at first; the core components are based on everyday shopping and travel habits.
Core Terms of Central Place Theory
• Central Place: Any settlement that provides goods and services to its surrounding population and hinterland.
• Sphere of Influence (or Hinterland): The geographical area over which a central place exercises economic, social, and service dominance. For example, a major city's sphere of influence extends across entire counties, while a village shop's sphere of influence covers only a few local streets or rural lanes.
• Threshold Population: The minimum number of people needed to support a specific good, service, or business so that it remains economically viable and profitable.
• Range: The maximum distance consumers are willing to travel to purchase a specific good or obtain a service.
Low-Order vs. High-Order Goods
We classify goods and services into two main categories depending on threshold and range:
1. Low-Order Goods:
• Everyday convenience items purchased frequently (e.g., milk, bread, daily newspapers, local post office services).
• Threshold: Small (requires only a few local customers to make a profit).
• Range: Short (you wouldn't travel 30 miles just to buy a carton of milk).
2. High-Order Goods:
• Specialized, expensive, or luxury goods and services purchased infrequently (e.g., specialized medical services, universities, high-end designer retail, major concert venues).
• Threshold: Large (requires thousands of potential customers to stay in business).
• Range: Long (people are willing to travel long distances or spend hours on a train to attend a university or visit a major specialist hospital).
Examiner Warning: Real-World Anomalies
Examiners frequently note that students assume all modern settlements conform strictly to classic geometric Central Place Theory lattices. In the real world, geometric models break down due to:
• Widespread car ownership and improved road connectivity: People can bypass local shops to travel easily to out-of-town supermarkets.
• Online commerce (e-tailing): People can order high-order goods directly to their door from isolated rural locations.
• Specialized settlements: Tourist hotspots, commuter towns, or retirement villages may have services disproportionate to their permanent population size.
Key Takeaway: Threshold is the people needed; Range is the distance traveled. Low-order goods have small thresholds and short ranges; high-order goods demand large thresholds and command long ranges.
---3. Spatial Dynamics of Settlement Transitions
Settlements evolve through distinct demographic and spatial stages. Understanding the exact definitions of these stages is essential for Section A short questions and Section B essays.
1. Urbanisation
• Definition: An increase in the proportion (percentage) of a country or region's population living in urban areas relative to rural areas.
• Key Drivers: Rural-to-urban migration and urban natural increase (births exceeding deaths in cities).
• Crucial Examiner Distinction: Do not confuse Urbanisation with Urban Growth! Urban growth is simply an absolute increase in the physical land area or total population count of a specific city. Urbanisation is a national or regional demographic shift where the percentage of people living in urban settlements increases relative to rural areas.
2. Suburbanisation
• Definition: The outward movement of people, retail businesses, and industrial facilities from inner-city areas into lower-density peripheral suburbs on the edges of the city.
• Key Drivers: Overcrowding and pollution in the inner city, improved transport links (railways and arterial roads), and the desire for larger homes with private gardens.
3. Counter-urbanisation
• Definition: The demographic movement of people and employment away from large urban centres into smaller rural settlements, villages, and outlying country towns (also called population de-concentration).
• Key Drivers: Seeking a peaceful rural lifestyle, modern telecommunications enabling remote working, lower crime rates, and cheaper housing compared to metropolitan cores.
4. Re-urbanisation (Urban Resurgence)
• Definition: The movement of people and economic activities back into inner-city zones.
• Key Drivers: Urban regeneration schemes, redevelopment of abandoned brownfield sites, new leisure and commercial districts, and gentrification attractive to young professionals and students.
5. The Rural-Urban Fringe Dynamics
• Definition: The transition zone situated right at the boundary where continuous built-up urban space meets the open countryside.
• Characteristics & Land-Use Conflicts: The fringe experiences intense competition for land between different uses, including:
- Out-of-town retail parks and commercial business parks.
- Major transport infrastructure such as bypasses, ring roads, and park-and-ride schemes.
- Modern commuter housing estates.
- Designated greenbelts established by planners to prevent unrestricted urban sprawl.
Key Takeaway: The cycle of urban movement flows from Urbanisation (movement to cities) \( \rightarrow \) Suburbanisation (movement to city edges) \( \rightarrow \) Counter-urbanisation (movement to rural areas) \( \rightarrow \) Re-urbanisation (movement back to inner cores).
---4. Socio-Economic Processes in Settlement Change
Beyond spatial growth, deep economic and social transformations occur within settlements.
Gentrification
• Definition: The socio-economic upgrading of deteriorated, working-class inner-city neighbourhoods by incoming higher-income residents.
• Process: Wealthier individuals buy rundown, relatively inexpensive historic housing in central locations and renovate the properties.
• Consequences:
- Positive: Physical regeneration of decaying housing stock, reduction in dereliction, opening of high-end cafes, boutiques, and services, and rising local tax revenues.
- Negative / Social Costs: Rapidly rising property and rental values, leading to the displacement of original, lower-income residents who can no longer afford to live in the area.
De-industrialisation & The Service Transition
• De-industrialisation: The structural decline of heavy manufacturing and industrial activities within urban cores.
• Impacts: Leaves behind abandoned brownfield land, contaminated docklands, and high rates of structural unemployment among industrial workers.
• Service Transition: The transformation of former industrial spaces into modern tertiary (service-sector), commercial, financial, and leisure economies (such as waterfront dining, shopping complexes, and office hubs).
Key Takeaway: Gentrification upgrades physical housing but can price out existing communities; de-industrialisation forces cities to reinvent their economic purpose from manufacturing to services.
---5. CCEA Case Study Framework & Exam Success
In Section B of the AS 2 exam, you will need to apply your understanding to detailed, place-specific case studies. Avoid vague descriptions; examiners award top marks for named locations, precise facts, and clear governance or planning contexts.
Case Study Focus 1: Rural Settlement Change
Your rural case study (focused on rural Northern Ireland settlements or wider UK counterparts) should evaluate:
• Pressures & Drivers: Rural depopulation in remote areas versus counter-urbanisation and commuter encroachment in accessible villages.
• Service Changes: The loss or retention of vital rural services (e.g., closures of village post offices, local primary schools, village grocery shops, and reduced public transport routes).
• Social Dynamics: Rising local house prices caused by incoming urban commuters, affecting the ability of local young people to remain in their home villages.
Case Study Focus 2: Inner-City / Urban Regeneration
Your urban case study should examine a targeted inner-city scheme, waterfront redevelopment, or gentrified district:
• Baseline Problems: Derelict industrial/dockland land, high structural unemployment post-deindustrialisation, and social deprivation.
• Interventions & Strategies: Public-private partnerships, flagship architectural projects, brownfield remediation, and new commercial/leisure developments.
• Evaluation: Assessing who benefited (economic resurgence, new jobs) versus who struggled (displacement, lack of affordable housing).
6. Pitfalls to Avoid in Your Exam
Ensure you review these common mistakes highlighted in examiner reports before sitting your AS Unit 2 paper:
• Pitfall 1: Confusing Urban Growth with Urbanisation. Always remember that urban growth refers to physical expansion or raw population increases in a town, while urbanisation is the rising percentage of a region's total population living in towns and cities.
• Pitfall 2: Confusing Threshold and Range. Threshold is the number of customers required; Range is the distance people travel.
• Pitfall 3: Assuming Christaller's CPT is flawless. Always evaluate real-world limitations such as e-tailing, high car mobility, and specialized tourist settlements.
• Pitfall 4: Vague Case Study Answers. Never write general statements like "a village in the countryside lost its shops." Instead, name specific settlements, quote local facts, and explain the exact planning context.
Final Review Checklist:
Can you define settlement hierarchy, threshold, range, and sphere of influence?
Can you explain the differences between urbanisation, suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation, and re-urbanisation?
Can you explain the socio-economic impacts of gentrification?
Are your rural and urban case studies prepared with named locations and specific details?