Torrero-Venecia-La Paz , un barrio sin igual

What is a city?

Site and situation

Settlements are places where people live. Many settlements have things in common and so they can be grouped to make it easier to study them.

Site - this is the place where the settlement is located, eg on a hill or in a sheltered valley.

Situation - this describes where the settlement is in relation to other settlements and the features of the surrounding area, eg is the settlement surrounded by forest or is it next to a large city?

Early settlements

Early settlers often looked for certain features in an area to make life easier:

flat land, to make building easier and safer
local raw materials, eg wood and stone, to build homes
a local water supply for drinking, washing, cooking and transport
dry land, so that people could build on areas that don't flood
a defendable site, eg a hilltop or river bend, to protect from attackers
good farm land with fertile soils, so people could grow crops
shelter, eg to protect from bad weather
transport links, eg a ford or low crossing point of a river

Settlement types

Settlements can vary in size and shape. Some people live alone or with their family in single properties, eg farmers, but most group together in towns and cities.

The table shows one way of dividing settlements into different types. It is worth remembering, though, that a village in one part of the world may be considered to be a town in another.

How can we define a city?

The city is a larger settlement of people who rely on agricultural work for subsistence.
The city is a settlement of considerable size, with differentiated structure of neighborhoods, has a character of city life and has a distinctive centrality.
The city is a complex social system that features advanced division of labour and a high population density that is socially diverse, does not deal with agriculture and it created a system of interactions, characterized in interpersonal relationships and social roles.

Settlement patterns and land uses

Towns and cities are often complex but it may be possible to see how some land uses group together in zones.

There are two types of urban development:

Regular (checkerboard - the establishment of a single, solid urban policy, regulation)
Irregular ("chaotic" - an element of defense, without interference and regulation, underground tunnels).

The diagram shows a simple version of the concentric . It shows a simple land use pattern that can be identified in some towns and cities, particularly in countries like the UK. In general, the oldest parts are in the centre and the newer parts on the edge.

Now it's your turn...

Name at least on example of each type of settlement.

Looking at Zaragoza's plan, locate the different land uses.

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