What is the specific meaning of settlement?

This content should also be in the first-year high school geography, volume 2, People's Education Edition P40-42

The general name for various forms of human settlements. The word "settlement" refers to villages in ancient times. For example, China's "Hanshu·Zhizhi" records: "It may be harmless for a long time, and a few houses will be built, and then a settlement will be formed." In modern times, it generally refers to all residential areas. Settlement is the research object of settlement geography.

Overview Settlement probably originated in the Middle Paleolithic Age and gradually evolved with the progress of human civilization. Under the primitive commune system, settlements based on clans were purely agricultural village communities. After entering the slave society, urban settlements appeared where residents did not directly rely on agriculture to make a living. However, the commodity economy did not occupy a dominant position in slavery society and feudal society, and rural settlements were always the main form of settlement. After entering capitalist society, cities or urban settlements developed widely, and rural settlements gradually lost their advantages and became low-level components of the settlement system.

Settlements usually refer to fixed residential areas, and only a few are mobile. A settlement is composed of various buildings, structures, roads, green spaces, water sources and other material elements. The larger the scale, the more complex the composition of the material elements. The architectural appearance of the settlement varied according to the living style. For example, the large longhouses of the Iban people in Borneo, the earthen round buildings in western Fujian, China, cave dwellings on the Loess Plateau, underground or semi-underground dwellings in dry areas such as Central Asia and North Africa, floating dwellings along some rivers, and nomadic areas The tents, etc., all have a relatively special appearance of the settlement.

Settlements have different planar forms, which are restricted by economic, social, historical, and geographical conditions. Villages with a long history tend to be clustered, while immigrant villages in areas that were developed later tend to be scattered. Urban settlements also have various plan forms due to different conditions in different places. The main direction of economic activities of a settlement determines the nature of the settlement. The basic content of economic activities in rural settlements is agriculture, which is customarily called countryside. There are many economic activities in urban settlements, and the relationship between various economic activity variables reflects the functional characteristics and nature of the city.

Classification As early as 1841, J.G. Cole had already paid attention to the comparative study of different types of settlements in his book "The Relationship between Human Transportation and Habitat and Terrain". However, there has been no systematic settlement classification for more than half a century since then. In the early 20th century, after the emergence of urban geography, the issue of settlement classification received further attention. Settlement geography first divides settlements into rural and urban areas, and then further divides them into categories. Since settlements have their own origin, historical development, geographical conditions, morphological structure, scale, economic activities and functions, it is difficult to formulate a comprehensive classification system that includes all factors and attributes. Most of them are based on the functions or morphological characteristics of the settlement. Supplemented by appropriate indicators for classification. Since the 1920s, the depth of urban classification research has far exceeded that of rural settlement classification, especially in functional classification. Since M. Oluso of the United States proposed the classification of qualitative description in 1921, it has gone through the process of general description, statistical description, economic analysis and even multivariate analysis. The representative of statistical description and statistical analysis is C.D. Harris of the United States in 1943. classification and H.J. Nelson's classification in 1955. Multivariate analysis is the product of the application of econometric methods to urban geography research in the 1960s. Until now, there is no generally accepted set of principles and systems for settlement classification or even city classification.

① Rural settlements. According to economic activities, they can be divided into agricultural settlements, forestry settlements, pastoral villages, fishing villages, and villages with more than two economic activities. According to the plan shape, it can be divided into cluster type (village), that is, block settlement (tuancun), strip settlement (road village, street village), ring settlement (huancun); scattered type, that is, point settlement (scattered village) village).

②Urban settlements. According to the form, it can be divided into centralized form (single city) and group form (twin cities, triple cities, strip group, and lump group). There are many schemes according to functions, among which the three representative schemes are: Harris classification (1943): based on the statistical data of the number of employees in various industries in the city, the number of employees in one industry accounts for all the employees in various industries. Based on the percentage of population, American cities are divided into nine categories: processing industrial cities, retail business centers, multi-functional cities, wholesale business centers, transportation centers, mining cities, academic cities, entertainment and recreation cities, state capitals and others.

G. Schwartz's classification (1959): First, cities are divided into three categories: cities with general functions, cities with special functions, and city-like settlements. Then the cities with special functions are divided into 5 categories: generated by political functions, influenced by cultural functions, determined by economic and transportation functions, national capitals, metropolises and cosmopolitan cities; the urban settlements are divided into 8 categories: traditional crafts and industrial settlements, settlements caused or transformed by modern industry, transportation settlements, tourist settlements, residential settlements, military settlements, religious settlements, and cultural and educational settlements. □.Г. Shoshkin's classification (1960): cities are divided into three categories according to their status in the regional division of labor in society: cities that participate in the intra-regional division of labor, cities that play a greater role in the inter-regional division of labor, and international cities. A city with close market connections. It is further divided into five categories according to the nature of production: cities that produce raw materials, fuel, and power, cities that produce intermediate products, cities that produce finished products, cities with transportation functions, and non-productive cities. These types of cities can also be broken down into groups.

In addition to rural settlements and urban settlements, there are also settlement types such as urbanized villages and market towns in between.