Human Settlements & Planning Notes

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS AND PLANNING Unit 1-5

Batch 2014-2019 Compiled by Ar.Yaazhini

UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION Elements of Human Settlements – Settlements  – human  human beings and settlements – settlements  – nature  nature shells& Network – Network – their  their functions and Linkages – Linkages  – Anatomy  Anatomy & classification of Human settlements – settlements  – Locational,  Locational, Resource based, Population size & Occupational structure .

What is Settlement? • • •

Settlements inhabited by man Cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live Created through movement of man in space and definition of boundaries of territorial interest for physical and institutional purposes

Settlements evolution

Aerial view of rectilinear land division in a farming area

In the long history from camp to village a handful of innovations accelerated the art of settlement design. In the agricultural societies such an innovation may be symbolized by the plow, for it boosted food production enough to free some people from tilling the soil and enabled them to attend other pursuits. with the plow, man put his first lines on the earth‟s surface. s urface. On the flat riverside flood lands-civilization‟s first tilled soil- the plow etched parallel furrows which added up to a number of plots, more or less rectangular shape. Agricultural societies needed a system of easy land division for crop planning and land ownership. They also needed a system of land plotting for re-division and reapportionment after the flood, an annual event on the Nile, the Tigris, and Euphrates rivers. Rectilinear plotting suited all these needs perfectly. It enabled men to plan the use of land. As the logic of the plow led to rectilinear plotting in the field, the geometry of mud brick house construction, as well as the need for easy land division, led to rectilinear plotting in the town. Village dwellers too had to be able to measure and record land plots for ownerships, transferral, or rudimentary planning. They also had to divide their urban lots into squares, yards, or gardens. Mud

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brick, convenient lengths of roofing lumber, and house planning were all combined in the logic of rectilinear town plotting. Rectilinear layout is found in the entire history of town planning. It was used in the ancient and later Greek towns, in Roman colonial out posts, and in the Indian, Chinese, and pre Columbian cities. But rectilinear was not the only geometric system used in the history. The grid iron layout was accompanied and probably preceded by an equally important system, that is the circular form of settlements. The grid had been the product of the farmer; the circle was originally the product of herdsman, the descendant of the hunter and the ancestor of the warrior. In the circle was found an ideal form for fencing in cattle, for its enclosed a maximum of land with minimum of fence. That, however , was not its only advantage, for a fence could, besides keeping cattle in, also keep an enemy out. The major role of the circular form of town layout was to be a defensive one. Early fortified towns, usually built on hilltops or on islands, had protective walls which were more or less circular enclosures.

A circular village ,aerial view of Ba Ila village in northern Rhodesia. Small huts form the outer circle. The chief’s compound is in the center. Cattle pens line the outer circle of the huts

The immediate descendant of the circular form was the radio centric, the means by which circular settlement enlarge. The radio centric pattern develops from the circular by first growing outward along the radial routes; the wedge shaped areas between the radials filling in gradually. Fortress cities, fo r example, developed small settlements around their gate s along the road ways. Eventually these circular settlements grew enough to require r equire a second encircling wall, and then a third and fourth. This process kept repeating itself, from ancient Athens or Rome to nineteenth century.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF SETTLEMENTS 1.Physical factors Nature of terrain: Dispersed type of settlements is found in remote jungles, hilly areas. Compact settlements are found in highly productive alluvial plains.

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Altitude:-Dispersed settlements are found in hills of Meghalaya and clustered and semi c lustered settlements settlements are found found in in Gujarat Gujarat plains. plains. frequent droughts droughts settlement settlement may may become hamleted hamleted.. Climate:-due to frequent

Availability of water: Scarcity of water in Rajasthan has r esulted in development of compact settlements. 2.Cultural and ethnic factors m ay become fragmented and Hamleted Caste and tribal structure: due to ethnic factors settlement may e.g.Chhattisgarh. Religion: people of same religion prefer to live together making a settlement large or small. 3.Security factors Defense from invasions and Wild animals: due to defense from dacoits, wild animals or fear settlements may cluster and form compact settlements. Settlement Characteristics: Area: How large the area of a settlement is. Site: describes the actual land upon which a sett lement is built. Population: The size and type of people that live in a settlement. Function: The function of a settlement relates to its economic and social development and re fers to its main activities. sett lement is located in relation to other surrounding features such as Situation: describes where a settlement other settlements, rivers and communications.

Shape: describes how the settlement is laid out. Its pattern.

SETTLEMENT FORMS Broadly classified into four types: 1. Shapeless cluster-without cluster- without any regular street or with an irregular road which comes up according to the local requirements, it may be of the massive type and dispersed type. 2. Linear cluster-with cluster-with a straight and specious street running network parallel rows of houses. 3. Square or rectangular cluster-with cluster-with straight streets running parallel or at right angles to one another.

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4. Settlement formed of isolated or dispersed homestead Settlements can further be classified according to size and spacing into: clustered or compact and dispersed or scattered.

SETTLEMENT HIERARCHY

i. Isolated dwellings Such settlement consists of individual units. It can be termed as the initial stage of development of a settlement. An isolated dwelling would only have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it. ii. Hamlets When many individual units are cluster together they form hamlets. The grouping may be due to similar occupational patterns, religion, cultural factors etc. A hamlet has a tiny population (