Question

briefly classify the types of rural settlements

Answer 1

1. Compact settlements

A compact settlement is based on farming. These are mostly found in highly productive alluvial plains like Indo-Gangetic Plains, the Hwang Ho Valley, Valley o Nile. The houses are compact and congested with narrow plains.

The size of these settlements depends on nature and resources of surrounding country. They have a high degree of segregation and differentiation of the upper and lower castes. Compact settlements are also found in hunt­ing and fishing communities.

2. Semi-Compact settlement

Semi-Compact is a transitional phase in the growth of compact settle­ment. The emergence is because of the difference of semi-arid regions from humid regions and marginal productive land to that of fertile land.

3. Dispersed settlement

These are generally found in hills, plateaus and grasslands. These are found in areas where it is essential that the farmer should live on his own land. Overpopulation is one of the rea­sons for dispersed settlement.

If a part of the popula­tion left a village to found a new one they often found dispersed rather than a new village. Dispersed settle­ments are relatively recent in age like Steppe grass­lands of Kazakhstan.