【Geography Inquiry】 Cities and Rural Settlements: Mastering Our "Living Spaces"!
Hello everyone! In this chapter, we will learn about "Cities" and "Rural Settlements." You might think, "Geography involves too much memorization, it’s so tough..." but don't worry! We all live in a "rural settlement" or a "city." Let's learn while picturing the scenery around us—it’s much more fun that way!
Some terms might feel difficult at first, but once you understand the underlying mechanisms, you'll find yourself saying, "Aha! That makes sense!"
1. Rural Settlements: Where People First Began to Gather
Rural settlements are communities where people primarily make a living through primary industries, such as agriculture or fishing. Let’s focus on their shapes and origins.
① Classification by Shape
They are broadly divided into two types based on how the houses are arranged.
・Nucleated Settlement (Shuson): A village where houses are clustered tightly together in one place.
→ Example: Areas where water is difficult to obtain (sharing a well), or places where there is a need to protect against outside enemies.
・Dispersed Settlement (Sanson): A village where houses are scattered and separated from each other.
→ Example: The Tonami Plain in Toyama Prefecture. Houses are built within one's own farmland, making farm work more efficient.
② Historically Significant Settlements
Some settlements are deeply connected to Japanese history.
・Jori System (Jori-sei): Villages with a grid-like land division created in ancient times (e.g., Nara period).
・Shinden Settlements: Villages developed during the Edo period. Many are linear villages (roson) where houses are aligned along a road.
・Tondenhei Settlements: Villages created during the Meiji period for the defense and development of Hokkaido. Because they were planned, they are very orderly.
【Pro Tip】
On exams, you are often asked for the reason behind why a settlement has a certain shape. Remember the background context as a set: "They clustered together because they needed water" or "They spread out to make managing large farmlands easier!"
【Trivia: The "Kainyo" of the Tonami Plain】
In the Tonami Plain, famous for its dispersed settlements, people plant house-surrounding forests called "Kainyo." This is a piece of wisdom to protect houses from cold winter winds and heavy snow!
2. Cities: Hubs of Advanced Functions
When a rural settlement grows and begins to take on functions like commerce, industry, and administration, it is called a "city."
① Internal Structure of a City
If you walk through a big city, the atmosphere changes depending on the area, right? This is modeled as follows:
・CBD (Central Business District): The very center of the city. High-rise buildings line the streets, and corporate offices and government agencies are concentrated here. A key characteristic is extremely high land prices.
・Sub-center (Fukutoshin): Another center created to relieve congestion in the CBD (e.g., Shinjuku or Shibuya in Tokyo).
・Residential Districts: Areas spreading out to the suburbs where people live.
② Urban Issues (In Developed Countries)
Specific phenomena occur in the cities of developed countries.
・Donut Phenomenon: A phenomenon where the population in the city center decreases while the suburban population increases due to soaring land prices or environmental deterioration. Because the middle appears empty on a map, it is called a "donut."
・Return to the City Center: Recently, due to urban redevelopment and the construction of high-rise condominiums, the number of people living in city centers is increasing again.
・Inner-City Problem: A situation in old residential areas within the city center where building decay and an aging population lead to a loss of vitality.
【Common Mistake!】
It’s easy to confuse the "Donut Phenomenon" with "Urban Sprawl"!
・Donut Phenomenon: The "phenomenon itself" of population moving from the city center to the suburbs.
・Sprawl: A "poor quality of expansion" where suburban land is developed "in an unplanned, scattered (moth-eaten) manner."
Try to distinguish them like this.
3. Global Urbanization and Challenges
Urbanization is progressing all over the world, but the situation is quite serious in developing countries.
① Cities in Developing Countries
In developing countries, people are flowing rapidly from rural areas into cities (rural-to-urban migration). However, since there aren't enough jobs or houses in the city to accommodate everyone, the following problems arise:
・Primate City: A city where population and functions are extremely concentrated, far outpacing the country’s second-largest city (e.g., Bangkok, Thailand).
・Formation of Slums: Areas in poor living conditions where people with nowhere to live build houses illegally.
② New Trends in Developed Countries: Gentrification
Gentrification is a complex term, but simply put, it means "an old neighborhood being reborn in a stylish way." It refers to the revitalization of a city, such as a decayed inner-city district, when young creators or wealthy individuals move in, leading to the opening of new cafes and shops.
【Calculation Tip】
The formula to calculate population density is simple:
\( Population\ Density = \frac{Population}{Area} \)
On the Common Test, you'll use this concept more for identifying whether a graph represents "a city center" or "a suburb" rather than the numbers themselves.
4. Summary and Checkpoints
Finally, let’s look back at the key points of this chapter.
・Shape of Settlements: Check if they are clustered (nucleated) or scattered (dispersed), and the reasons why!
・City Structure: The center (CBD) has high land prices and tall buildings. As you move outward, residential areas increase.
・Urban Issues: Developed countries face the "Donut Phenomenon" and "Inner-City" problems; developing countries face "Primate Cities" and "Slums."
The field of "Cities and Settlements" is closely tied to our daily lives. If you hear words like "redevelopment" or "depopulation" on the news, try to remember what you learned today. That’s the best way to prepare for your exams!
Great work today!