Welcome to Settlement Change (CCEA AS 2: Human Geography)
Welcome to your study guide for Theme B: Settlement! Whether you feel confident with human geography or find it a bit overwhelming, this guide breaks down everything into manageable, bite-sized concepts. By the end of this chapter, you will understand how settlements grow, why people move between urban and rural areas, how governments protect the countryside, and the challenges faced by cities across different parts of the world.
Exam Snapshot: This unit forms a major part of Assessment Unit AS 2: Human Geography (Paper code: SGG21). In your 1-hour 15-minute exam, you will encounter both short-answer resource questions (Section A) and extended essay questions (Section B).
---Part 1: Settlement Hierarchy and Dynamic Processes (2A)
Every settlement, from an isolated cottage in the countryside to a massive city, plays a specific role within a wider network. Geographers use models and key concepts to explain these patterns.
1. The Settlement Hierarchy & Core Concepts
A settlement hierarchy arranges settlements in order of size and importance, from isolated dwellings and hamlets at the bottom up to large cities and conurbations at the top.
• Threshold Population: The minimum number of people needed to support a specific good or service so it remains economically viable.
• Range: The maximum distance people are willing to travel to purchase a good or use a service.
• Sphere of Influence: The surrounding geographic area served by a settlement. High-order settlements (like major regional cities) have large spheres of influence because they offer specialised, high-order goods with large ranges and thresholds.
• High-Order vs. Low-Order Services: A convenience shop selling milk is a low-order service (small threshold, small range). A university or specialist hospital is a high-order service (large threshold, large range).
2. Suburbanisation vs. Counter-Urbanisation
Top Tip to Avoid a Common Pitfall: Do not mix up these two outward movements!
Suburbanisation: The movement of people from inner zones of a city outward to the edge or rural-urban fringe of the same contiguous urban area.
• Drivers: Overcrowding and pollution in the inner city, desire for larger family homes with gardens, improved radial road networks, and suburban railway lines.
• Impacts: Encroachment onto greenfield sites at the city fringe, ribbon development along major transit routes, and increased morning and evening peak traffic.
Counter-Urbanisation: The demographic and social process whereby people move completely away from large urban areas into separate rural towns and villages beyond the city boundary.
• Drivers: De-industrialisation, high urban house prices, search for a quieter "rural idyll", increased teleworking/remote working, and improved highway connections.
• Impacts on Commuter & Suburbanised Villages (e.g., Moira or Carryduff in Northern Ireland):
- Housing: New estate developments lead to house price inflation, pricing out local young people.
- Community & Services: Villages can become "dormitory settlements" where commuters leave during the day. Local traditional services (butchers, post offices) may close due to lack of daytime trade or be replaced by high-end specialist shops and cafes.
- Environment & Traffic: Heavy car dependency leads to rural road congestion and higher carbon emissions.
3. Gentrification and Re-urbanisation
While some people leave cities, others move back. This creates two vital processes:
Gentrification: The buying and physical renovation of deteriorating, older housing stock in run-down inner-city areas by middle-to-high-income earners.
• How it works: Lower property prices in neglected inner districts attract young professionals and investors who upgrade the properties. Commercial investors follow, opening new restaurants, boutiques, and high-end services.
• Positive Impacts: Reduces physical dereliction, improves housing quality, increases the local tax base, and brings private capital investment into neglected areas (such as parts of inner London or regenerated dockside zones).
• Negative Impacts (Essential for balanced essays): Drives up rents and property values, resulting in the direct displacement of original lower-income residents. Traditional community ties are fragmented, and affordable everyday shops are replaced by expensive specialty retailers.
Re-urbanisation: The broader movement of population and economic activity back into urban centres following a previous period of decline or de-industrialisation, often stimulated by large-scale government-backed urban regeneration schemes (e.g., London Docklands).
Quick Review Box (Part 1):
• Suburbanisation: Moving to the edge of the same city.
• Counter-urbanisation: Moving out of the city entirely into rural villages.
• Gentrification: Wealthier residents moving into and renovating run-down inner-city properties.
Part 2: Planning in Rural Environments (2B)
Because open countryside is in high demand for housing, leisure, and farming, planners use strict tools to protect the environment while balancing economic needs.
1. Measures to Protect the Countryside
• Green Belts: Rings of protected open land surrounding major urban centres designed to prevent urban sprawl, stop neighbouring towns from merging, and encourage the recycling of derelict brownfield land within cities.
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): Designated landscapes of national importance protected for their distinctive character and natural beauty.
• Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) & Special Protection: Targeted zones where agricultural practices are managed or incentivised to safeguard landscape features, wildlife habitats, and historical heritage.
2. The National Park Debate in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland currently has no designated National Parks, but proposals (such as in the Mourne Mountains or the Antrim Coast) have generated intense debate. For your exam, you must provide a balanced evaluation of both sides.
Arguments FOR establishing a National Park:
• Conservation: Provides a strong statutory framework to preserve fragile ecosystems, repair footpath erosion, and safeguard native wildlife.
• Economic Growth & Tourism: Grants a world-recognised "brand" that boosts sustainable eco-tourism, creates jobs in hospitality, guiding, and outdoor recreation, and attracts national and international funding.
• Infrastructure: Encourages better visitor management, improved public transport links, designated parking facilities, and clear educational signage.
Arguments AGAINST establishing a National Park:
• Farming & Landowner Restrictions: Farmers and local landowners fear strict planning bureaucracy, limitations on agricultural development, and loss of private control over their land.
• Property Price Inflation: Influx of buyers seeking holiday homes and second properties can price local families out of the rural housing market.
• Overcrowding & Congestion: Major increases in tourist traffic on narrow rural roads can disrupt local communities, cause litter, and create conflict between visitors and working farmers.
Key Takeaway (Part 2): Rural planning is always a delicate balance between conservation, local economic livelihoods (farming/industry), and recreation/tourism. A top-grade essay evaluates the perspectives of multiple stakeholders (e.g., conservationists vs. local farmers).
---Part 3: Urban Challenges in MEDCs and LEDCs (2C)
Cities around the world face serious challenges, but the nature of these problems differs substantially between More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) and Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs).
1. Inner-City Challenges in MEDCs
• Housing & Physical Decline: Structural decay of Victorian/older terraced properties, substandard rental accommodation, and high land values that make affordable housing difficult to construct.
• Traffic Congestion & Air Pollution: Heavy car dependency leads to gridlocked roads, increased journey times, and elevated concentrations of nitrogen oxides (\(NO_x\)) and fine particulate matter (\(PM\)), creating respiratory health issues.
• Public Transport Deficits: Gaps between transit availability and affordability; overcrowding on peak rail and bus networks.
• Socio-Cultural Dynamics: Spatial segregation of ethnic and socio-economic groups, potential social isolation, language barriers, and disparities in access to education and healthcare facilities.
2. Urban Challenges in Rapidly Urbanising LEDC Megacities
In LEDC cities, rapid rural-to-urban migration combined with high rates of natural population increase often outpaces the city authority's ability to provide infrastructure.
• Informal Settlements (Slums/Favelas/Shanties, e.g., Dharavi in Mumbai or Kibera in Nairobi):
- Built on marginal, hazardous land (steep hillsides prone to landslides or low-lying floodplains).
- Dwellings are constructed from scrap materials (corrugated iron, timber, plastic).
- Lack of legal land tenure leaves residents vulnerable to eviction.
• Sanitation & Infrastructure Deficits:
- Severe shortages of clean, piped drinking water.
- Lack of closed sewerage systems leads to open drains and the rapid spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
- Inadequate municipal waste management causes garbage accumulation in residential alleys.
• The Informal Economy:
- A huge proportion of the labour force works in the informal sector (unregulated street vending, shoe shining, rag picking, manual labour).
- Workers lack contracts, minimum wages, sick pay, or health and safety protections.
- City authorities collect minimal tax revenue, preventing them from financing essential public infrastructure.
Exam Success: Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
1. Always Use Named Case Studies & Spatial Detail:
Never write general or hypothetical answers. When discussing counter-urbanisation or suburbanisation, mention specific commuter settlements (e.g., Moira or Carryduff). When discussing gentrification or dockland regeneration, cite specific locations like the London Docklands. When writing about LEDC urban challenges, name specific informal settlements like Dharavi or Kibera.
2. Direct Resource Use in Section A:
When an exam question includes a graph, map, or data table, quote exact figures, units, anomalous data points, or map references. Do not rely solely on general background knowledge.
3. Balanced Critical Thinking in Section B:
Remember that processes like gentrification or policies like National Parks have both clear benefits and significant drawbacks. Showing both sides of the argument and weighing their relative significance is the fastest route to top-band marks.