Geography Glossary - Settlements

Amenities	Services, from the toilet in your own home to public transport.
Aspect	Refers to the location of the sun according to the site.
Bridging point	A settlement built where it was possible to build a bridge.
Burgess Model	An urban land use model showing five concentric rings.
By-pass	A road built to go round a busy urban area.
Central Business District	(CBD) The commercial and business centre of the town or a city.
Central Place	Any settlement that provides goods and services for smaller neighbouring settlements.
Clustered settlement	Where housing surrounds a certain service.
Commuting	The process by which people living in one place, travel to another place to work.
Comparison goods	High order goods such as jewellery, antiques, etc.
Congestion	Lots of traffic.
Conurbation	Where two or more cities have joined together.
Convenience goods	Low order goods which are inexpensive.
Corner shop	A small shop typical of the inner city.
Cycle of deprivation	A sequence of events experienced by disadvantaged people in which one problem eg. Lack of work leads to other problems and so makes things worse.
Derelict	Abandoned building
Detached house	A house standing alone.
Dispersed settlement pattern	Where buildings are not clustered around a particular point.
Dormitory settlement	A commuter settlement.
Dry point	A dry site in a wet region.
Family life cycle model	A model which is based on the movements of people within a city looking for a better home as their personal circumstances get better.
Favela	Shanty town.
Function of a settlement	What the settlement does to make its money. (a Market Town, mining town …)
Gentrification	A process by which poor housing in the inner city is improved and rehabilitated by richer people.
Goods	Products
Green belt	An area around a city, composed mostly of parkland and farmland, in which development is strictly controlled.
Hamlet	Small group of houses.
Hierarchy	The ranking of settlements or shopping centres according to their population size or the number of services they provide.
Hinterland	The sphere of influence of a port.
Hoyt model	An urban land use model showing sectors, based upon main transport routes and social groupings.
Industrial revolution	The growth and development of the manufacturing industry and the factory system which began in the UK in the 18th century.
Inner city	The part of the urban area surrounding the CBD, it often contains older housing and industry. (twilight zone)
Inner suburbs	Surrounding the inner city. Housing often built in the 1950's.
Linear settlement	Settlement in the form of a line which normally follows a road or railway.
Loose-knit settlement	A settlement with many gaps between building and with little pattern.
New town	A planned, self contained settlement complete with housing, employment and services.
Out of town shopping centre	A large group of shops built on the edge of an urban area or on an old industrial area.
Outer suburbs	Surrounding the inner suburbs. More modern housing.
Overspill town	A town that expanded by taking people who were forced to move out of cities as a result of slum clearance and re-development schemes.
Over-urbanisation	Problem experienced in LEDCs where too many people migrate to an urban area causing housing shortages, lack of sanitation, illness and crime.
Primate City	Capital city.
Range of a good	The maximum distance people are prepared to travel for a specific service.
Resources	Materials needed such as wood, water, coal, iron…
Retail park	Out of town shopping centre with large warehouse-type buildings selling electrical goods, carpets, etc.
Re-urbanisation	The process where towns and cities in MEDCs which have begun to loose population are able to stop this decline and grow again.
Ribbon development	When housing grows out of a town along a main road.
Route centre	A settlement located at the meeting point of roads, railways, canals, etc.
Rural-urban fringe	Zone of transition between the urban area and the countryside.
Semi-detached house	A house joined to another.
Semi-skilled occupation	Jobs with few skills that can be learnt quickly, such as, cleaner, labourers, etc.
Shanty town	Home made huts in poor countries - shacks (favela)
Site	A settlement's site is the land it is built on.
Slum	Poorly built housing, unfit for habitation, found in inner city areas, in MEDCs, in the 19th century. Found today in LEDCs.
Sphere of influence	The area served by a settlement service or shop.
Spontaneous settlement	A shanty towns.
Suburbanisation	Where people, factories and shops move out of the city centres to the suburbs.
Terraced house	A long line of houses.
Transect	A journey taken by someone (referring to urban geography).
Transition Zone	The inner city area where their is mixed land use such as derelict buildings, factories, shops and housing. This area in MEDCs is usually being redeveloped.
Twilight zone	The part of the urban area surrounding the CBD, it often contains older housing and industry. (inner city)
Urban Sprawl	Unplanned and uncontrolled groth of urban areas.
Village	Has houses and at least one function, i.e. a church, a shop, a pub, a village hall, etc.
Wet point	A site that has a good supply of water.