Population and Settlement : O Level Geo

Introduction

Settlement

• Refers to a structure where human beings reside.

• It may be made up of one or several dwellings.
• The term settlement is, however, commonly used to refer to several
dwellings.
• In Geography we study the form (shape) and function (purpose) of
settlements
• Site-this is the space or position occupied by a settlement.
• It is the land upon which a settlement is built.
• A settlement can be built upon a hill or on the slope of a hill or in a
valley.
• Settlements can also be described in terms of their location
/situation.
• Location/situation-this is the position of a settlement in relation to
its surroundings.
• For example a settlement can be located between mountains, at a
road junction or along a coastline.
• A settlement’s location can also be described in relation with other
settlements.
• Settlements can also be described in terms of their size, structure
and function.
• Settlements can grow from being hamlets, to villages, then to
towns, to cities or even larger settlements known as conurbations
or megalopolis.
• As the village grows in size the range of activities within it
increases.

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 • In a town a there is a shift to non-agricultural activities thus
distinguishing it from a village.
• Urban sprawl-this is when two or more towns grow into each
other.
• The result of an urban sprawl is called a conurbation.
• A settlement’s structure is known as its layout.
• The layout includes the settlement’s transport network and land-
use.
• A settlement’s morphology-this is where a settlement’s layout is
considered in terms of settlement’s types of buildings, their layout,
age, type, and quality.
• Many settlements are described in their functions, hence the terms
like mining town, marketing center etc.
• Each settlement has a sphere of influence.
• Sphere of influence-is the area around the settlement which
depend on the town for various services.
• The sphere of influence can be determined length of the journey
between home and workplace of the settlement’s workplaces or the
extent of the services for example newspaper distribution.

Factors influencing the siting and location of settlements

• Several factors influence the location of settlements

• These can be divided into four:
• historical factors
• accessibility
• availability of resources; and
• human preferences and available technology

Historical Factors

• Include historical considerations including the desire to build

settlements on defensive grounds.
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 • Factors of legislation and land tenure also affect the position of
present settlement patterns and their locations.
• For example most settlements were located on higher ground
which was easier to defend.
• Higher ground also meant enemies could be seen while they were
still far off.
• This explains settlements like Great Zimbabwe, Khami and
Nyanga hill sites.
• In European settlements river bends and pronounced meanders
formed important settlements as they were favored as defensive
sites.
• Also European settlements often align themselves with the ancient
feudal systems of Europe.
• Much of the settlement in Zimbabwe especially in communal areas
are hugely influenced by the Land Apportionment Act of 1930.
• The linear settlement pattern often found in communal areas was a
result of planned and legislated land settlement patterns.

Accessibility

• The need to communicate with other areas for trade and travel
purposes is another important factor that influences settlement
patterns.
• Settlements are often located along transport routes and
communication lines.
• These may be roads, railway lines or water routes.
• Such settlements are also known as Nodal settlements
• Nodal settlements-these are settlements that converge along roads,
railway lines, water routes, mountain passes, gaps river
confluences and valleys.
• Nodal settlements are heavily influenced by communication
networks.

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Availability of resources

Hwange is mostly a coal town.

• A lot of settlements are located near natural resources that are

necessary for people’s livelihood.
• For example water, minerals, wood, fertile soil and grass.
• Water is a very important resource that attracts settlement.
• It is used for domestic/irrigation purposes, pastoral activities and in
some cases where the river is navigable, for transport purposes.
• Settlements also occur along springs.
• Settlements can also occur as a result of a combination of these
resources for example water and fertile lands for farming villages
and towns.
• Settlements can also be attracted by forests and mountain areas
where there is plentiful wood to be used as a fuel.
• Minerals such as asbestos have acted as a catalyst towards the
formation of towns like Zvishavane and coal in Hwange.

Human preferences and the influence of technology

• Most barriers that prevented settlements from being built in certain

areas have since been overcome.
• Settlements are now being built in areas previously marginalized.
• For example settlements are now being built even on steep slope
using landscaping.
• Settlements are now being planned according to human
preferences and desires.
• For example most land use patterns in resettlement areas are a
result of deliberate human planning more than anything else.

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 • Urban area settlements are always planned although spontaneous
settlements, which are usually illegal, often sprout out for example
Epworth and Hopely farm.

Classification of settlements

• Settlements are generally classified as either rural or urban.

• Rural settlements are those settlements where mostly primary
activities occur.
• The majority of settlers in rural areas carry out primary activities in
order to earn their living.
• These include activities like mining, farming, fishing and forestry.
• The populations of these settlements often depend on the
surrounding land.
• As such settlements grow, they also increase the variety of
activities and may develop into urban settlements.

• An urban settlement is one which mainly carries out secondary and

tertiary functions.
• Examples of such functions include commerce, banking,
manufacturing and service provision businesses such as banking
and insurance.
• Urban settlements carry out a wider ranger of services when
compared to rural settlements

Rural Settlements in Zimbabwe

• Historic settlements were rural, as the populations were mainly

dependent on hunting, fishing and gathering fruits.
• Shelter was mostly basic and in the form of caves, tents made from
animal skins, huts made out of wood, leaves and grass.

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 • The development of farming brought with it the need for more
permanent settlements.
• The small nucleated settlements of the hunters and gatherers were
turned into more dispersed settlements as the farmers needed more
room for their fields, pastures and other farming operations.
• The Agrarian revolution which occurred in Europe in the 18th
century and spread to other countries led to the development of
isolated farm settlements.
• In Zimbabwe most commercial farms have nucleated settlements
as farming e.g. tobacco farming tends to be labour intensive.
• In rural areas especially communal lands the linear settlement
pattern tends to dominate.
• This is because people settle along rivers, mountain ranges, roads,
railway lines etc.
• Most communal areas are also have the nucleated settlement
patterns as homes are organized into kraals and people share
pastures and fields.
• Other settlement are also observed on a less frequent scale.

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Rural settlement patterns

Linear Pattern

• Consists of a line of huts or houses following a road, river, or

cultivated areas/fields.
• Such patterns can also develop along a watershed or a mountain
range.
• It should be pointed out that Zimbabwe’s roads, especially the
major roads, are found on watersheds.

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Radial Pattern

• This pattern usually develops at road junctions or nodal points.

• They radiate out from a central point like the spokes of a bicycle
wheel going outwards in all directions.
• These nodal points include rural service centers for example
District Council Offices or Growth Points.

Circular pattern

• Is a common pattern on desert nomadic camps, around dwalas,

volcanic hills or wells and watering holes in semi-arid areas.
• Some tribes e.g. The Kayapo in the Amazon Basin live in circular
villages for cultural reasons.
• They live in the outer houses and the central house is a meeting
place.

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Nucleated/Compact

Settlements in rural areas can be nucleated/gathered around market

places, commercial farming areas or in camps.

Such settlements tend to be arranged in much the same manner as

electrons in an atom.

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Dispersed and Haphazard Settlements patterns

• Settlements can also be dispersed especially in areas with fewer

resources that cannot support dense populations as people try to
give each other space to operate for example extensive farmers.
• This is also common pattern in commercial farming, communal
areas with ragged terrain and areas with poor soils.
• Haphazard settlement patterns can be dispersed or compact but
they usually do not conform to a recognizable shape showing a
lack of planning.

Quality of life in rural areas in Zimbabwe

• More recently in Chiadzwa families had to be resettled as their

houses were on diamond fields.
• Several families had to be resettled and compensated when their
villages were submerged by the rising waters of the dam.
• The same disruption took place at the Osborne dam was built in
Manicaland.
• A massive resettlement program was undertaken to move the
people to higher ground.

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 • The construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s saw the
disruption of the Tonga People who were settled 5 200 square
kilometers.
• The Land Husbandry Act of the 1950s created a predominantly
linear settlement pattern that still exists to this day.
• Settlement patterns are also influenced by physical relief and
terrain as well as soil fertility.
• This is a result of past legislation as well as about availability and
access to resources for example water and land for cultivation and
pasture.
• Most of rural settlements tend to be nucleated or linear in
Zimbabwe.
• 95% of the rural households used wood as the main source of fuel
for cooking.
• 52% of the rural housing units had no access to a toilet or
sanitation facilities.
• 63% of the rural housing units had access to safe drinking water.
• 5% of rural housing units in the country had electricity.
• 18% of the country’s rural people lived in modern houses,
compared to 90% in urban areas.
• 82% of the country’s rural population lives in either traditional
structures, built out of pole and dagga with grass thatch, bricks
with grass thatch or mixed dwellings with one or more modern
structures with corrugated iron sheets, cement roofing or asbestos
roofing.
• According to the 1992 Census:
• do not have access to shops, clinics or schools.
• lack of access to safe drinking water,
• inadequate sanitation,
• as the lack of access to proper sanitation,
• Most of these squatter camps have problems such:

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 • Including plastics, card boards, poles, dagga, grass, old iron sheets
or whatever material the squatters can lay their hands on.
• They are usually build out of a combination of several building
materials
• These are especially common on commercial farms, mining
centres and some service areas e.g. District Council Offices.
• Squatter camps are also common in both rural and urban areas in
Zimbabwe.
• Fairly modern settlements built using brick and roofed with
asbestos, cement sheets or corrugated iron sheets are also now
common in most rural areas.
• In fact even if families build other houses round kitchens are a part
of every rural compound for cultural and practical reasons.
• Local poles and grass are still however used for thatching these
structures which are also usually round in shape betraying the fact
that they are influenced by the shape of the traditional pole and
dagga huts.
• Most of Zimbabwe’s communal settlements have moved away
from the use of poles and dagga and now use fired bricks.
• Such traditional houses tend are still common although they are
slowly disappearing as people embrace the use of bricks and other
modern building materials.
• Traditional houses are round in shape, built of poles, dagga and
grass.
• In Zimbabwe traditional houses reflect the building materials
which are obtained from the surrounding environment.
• The quality of life in rural areas is greatly affected by the quality of
rural housing.
• According to the 2012 Census report 67% of Zimbabwe’s
population lives in rural areas.

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 • Also over the past decade most commercial farms have been
subdivided into individual plots as people obtained land under the
Land Reform Act.

Urban Settlements

The structure of Urban settlements

• This is the shape or form of urban areas in relation to land-use

models.
• The structure of urban settlements is also known as urban
morphology.
• Models are used to describe and explain the structure of cities.
• A model is a systematic description of an object in this case a
typical city.
• There are three urban land use models viz:
• The concentric model (1924) by Burgess
• The Sector Model (1939) by Hoyt
• The Multi-nuclei Model (1945) by Harris and Ullman
• These models attempt to describe what a typical town/city or urban
settlement looks like, how it came to be what it is (how it
developed over the years) and why

Factors that affect land use in urban areas

• The pattern of urban growth and land use depends on a number of

factors including:
• Communication- This includes roads, railway lines, telephone/fiber
lines etc. For example factories tend to be located along/near
railway lines and roads for them to receive raw materials easily
and ferry goods to the market. The Central Business District
(CBD) is at the center of towns and easily accessible from all sides
of town hence land tends to be expensive here. Only those
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 activities that can pay for this land are found in the CBD e.g.
Banks, Offices and Insurance businesses.
• The nature of the land for example whether it is gentle in terms of
terrain.
• The cost of the land. For example competition for land at the CBD
results in steep costs so only businesses that can pay for this land
our found there.
• The rent or rates payable. This is similar to the cost of the land.
• The position of the plots in relation to other settlements.
• The size of the piece of land. The smaller the land the larger the
size.

Types of Land uses in urban areas

• Land use i.e. what the land is used for in urban area differs with
each area.
• Although land uses are usually mixed for example some industries
can be found in residential areas land uses tend to be defined.
• Similar land uses attract each other and push other land uses out.
• For example if more and more industries locate in a
residential area more and more people will leave due to things like
pollution.
• Most areas have one dominant land use.
• There are different types of land uses in urban areas.
• These can be classified into:
• Industrial
• Commercial
• Residential
• In some areas these land uses may mix.

Historical developments of urban settlements

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 • Most modern towns in Africa and Europe are influenced by
industrialization
• As new factories were built large numbers of works migrated from
rural areas to towns.
• The large influx of people led to pressure on urban land and the
development of urban planning.
• Competition for land in the CBD led to a rise in its cost, rentals
and rates.
• Functions that could not afford this land were pushed out of the
city center to less expensive urban outskirts.
• Wealthy individuals also moved out of the CBD to escape
overcrowding and smoke from industries to the peripheral areas.
• They could build larger houses with gardens and recreational
parks.
• For example Borrowdale.
• Low income and unemployed migrates moved nearer to the places
of employment at the city center. For example Avenues houses and
flats and Mbare.
• Housing stands became smaller and smaller.
• Semi-detached housing and squatter camps became a common
feature in inner-city zones.
• For example Hopely farm.

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The concentric model/Burgess’s model (1924)

• This is known alternatively as the concentric model, the ring model

for urban land use or Burgess’ model.
• It was formulated by Burgess and Park in 1924 after their studies
of the city of Chicago in the United States.
• Their study revealed that the city could be divided into a number of
concentric land-use zones :
• The Central Business District
• The Zone of transition
• The Zone of transition
• The Zone of workingmen’s houses
• The Zone of middle income or medium density housing
• The Commuter Zone
• The model assumes that the city grows from a single nucleus
(core) in concentric circles of distinct land uses.
• The city grows by urban ecology or expansion due to demand of
different goods and services.
• The city will continue to grow into surrounding rural areas.

The CBD

• It is the nucleus of the city

• All (communication) routes meet in this area.

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 • It has high rise buildings/skyscrapers.
• Rentals are normally high in this area.
• It has very few people and traffic during the night and high traffic
densities of people and traffic during the day.
• It is the commercial core where hotels, banks, specialized services,
theaters, departmental stores, finance houses and cinemas are
found.

Zone of transition

• It surrounds the CBD

• It has residential areas with poor housing.
• It has offices and light industries.
• It is characterized by industrial functions that require a lot of land.
• It infamous for its crimes and social problems for example
prostitution.
• It is characterized by transient population, migrant workers, the
poor, aged and unemployment.
• Examples are Mbare and Avenues.

Zone of workingmen’s houses/Low class residential areas

• This is known as to the zone of workingmen’s houses or low-

income residential zone
• This zone is found near heavy industries for example Highfield and
Glen Norah suburbs near Willowvale industries and Mbare and
Graniteside Industries.
• The density of houses per unit area is high
• The zone is characterized by high density suburbs with each house
located on a small plot of land.
• This area is occupied by factory works, single houses, small yards
and untarred roads.

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Zone of middle income/medium density housing

• This is characterized by large houses,

• with gardens and broad tree-lined streets..
• A small commercial centre and
• greenbelts can be found within this zone.
• Social centers like pre-schools and schools can also be found in
this zone.
• Examples are Hillside and Cranborne suburbs in Harare.

Commuter zone

• Is located some distance away from the city center.

• People use commute to the CBD in order to get to work using
trains, cars and buses.
• The zone starts off with low density, high income residential areas,
• with large spaced houses and gardens.
• In some places market gardening may be practiced for example
Honey Dew farm in Greendale.
• They usually have a suburban shopping center for example Sam
Levy in Borrowdale and Kamphinsa in Greendale.
• The zone may also give way to larger farms supplying fresh fruits,
dairy products and vegetables to the town.
• Sometimes the farming zone may be interrupted by small
dormitory towns such as Chitungwiza.

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Hoyt’s Sector model (1939)

• It was published as an alternative to Burgess and Park’s concentric

model
• It was based on a study of 142 American cities.

Assumptions

• In making the model Hoyt made some assumptions

• The model assumes wealthy people who can afford the highest
rentals and rates chose the best sites.
• Wealthy residents can afford private cars or transportation thus
they live further from industry and near main roads.
• Similar land uses attract each other and repel other land uses.
• This process is referred to as sector development
• The city or town as a single CBD or core.
• People need to move from one area of the town to another.

The model

• According to Hoyt areas alongside main roads/communication

lines attract the highest rent and rates.
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 • The city grows in a series of wedges
• Land use follows transport routes from the CBD.
• Once a certain area has developed a distinctive land use or function
it tends to retain that land use as the city grows outwards
• Hoyt also identifies different residential zones in relation to
income, opportunity and class.
• Sectors thus replace the rings in Burgess and Park’s model.
• This is because of unequal access as the city grows outwards along
major routes.
• Major routes attract manufacturing.
• Next to the industrial zone are low class worker’s houses for
example Mbare and Leighton industries, Willowvale and
Highfields and Mbare and Graniteside.
• These houses are followed by middle class houses (Waterfalls next
to Mbare) and then high income houses.

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Harris and Ullman’s Multi-nuclei model (1945)

They made their study well after the other two models had been
published and thus had the benefit of hindsight and cities had since
grown in size.

Findings

• They realized the fact that modern cities have a more complex
structure than described by the Concentric and Sector models
• Cities usually grow from several independent nuclei rather than or
in addition to the main CBD.

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 • These cores include sub-urban shopping centers in most modern
cities.
• Each of these nucleus acts as a point of growth and usually has
some of the functions found in the main CBD and other nuclei for
example it might have banks, shopping malls, supermarkets etc
• For example Sam Levy shopping center, Kamphinsa, Westgate,
Makoni shopping centers
• These centers grow with time to merge with each other to form one
large urban center.
• Harris and Ullman were able to study later urban settlements that
had satellite residential and industrial suburbs in their model.
• If the main city becomes too large and congested some functions
may disperse to form new nuclei.
• Multiple nuclei thus develop out of the need for quick access to the
center, to keep certain land uses apart and to decentralise.
• The city of Harare closely approximates this model with the main
large CBD at the center and various nuclei in the form of shopping
centers such as Borrowdale, Same Levy, Machipisa in Highfield,
Kamphinsa in Greendale, Westgate, Pendennis in Mt Pleasant etc.
• It also has satellite towns in Ruwa and Chitungwiza.

Zimbabwe’s towns and Cities an Introduction

• An urban settlement in Zimbabwe is one whose population is more

than 2 500 or more with the majority of its workers (more than
50%) engaged in non-agricultural activities.
• It must have a compact settlement pattern
• This definition also, by custom, tends to omit Growth Points even
when they meet the definition.
• According to the 2012 census report 33% of the population in
Zimbabwe live in urban areas and 47% of the urban population
lives in Harare

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 • Most, if not all of Zimbabwe’s towns are influenced by their
colonial heritage.
• Each town usually has a core/CBD
• An industrial zone e.g. Willowvale in Harare
• high density or low income residential zone e.g. Highfields in
Harare
• middle income residential zone (middle density suburb) e.g
Cranborne in Harare
• low density or high income residential zone e.g. Borrowdale in
Harare and
• sub-urban commercial centers e.g. Sam Levy and Westgate in
Harare
• Other cities have satellite towns around them for example Norton,
Chitungwiza and Ruwa around Harare
• There are very few large urban settlements in Zimbabwe
• As the number of settlements increases as their size decreases i.e.
there are multiple small urban centers.
• Most urban centers rose out of administrative centers for example
Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Bindura and Marondera act as
provincial administrative centers
• Some towns began as mining centers for example Hwange,
Zvishavane, Shurugwi, Kwekwe, Bindura, Kadoma and Gwanda.
• Some grew as service centers. For example some towns act as
agricultural service centers for surrounding farmlands e.g. Harare,
Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare etc.
• A few towns grew as tourist/resort towns for example Victoria
Falls, Kariba and Masvingo.

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