The Size and Spacing of Settlements

Abstract

The pattern made by the way in which man is distributed across the surface of the land masses of the world is of first importance to the geographer and is central to his contribution to any analysis of man and his behaviour. So far in this group of chapters, some attempt has been made through the use of basic models to contribute to an understanding in spatial terms of his use of rural and urban land, but as yet no attempt has been made to account for the spatial relationship between these two uses — no attempt, that is, to account for the way in which urban settlements of varying types and sizes are distributed through the rural landscape. In an analysis of this problem the immediate difficulty which arises is one of definition. In former times when towns and cities were ringed by walls, the distinction in terms of settlement between what was rural and what was urban would have been clear. But today, although there is a tendency to think in terms of population as either rural or urban, simply because local government units are at present divided on this basis, the use of such a classification can be misleading. Would it be right, for example, to consider a large village as rural in character if an attempt was being made to analyse the relationship between the distribution and size of settlements in an essentially agricultural landscape? Certainly it would not. Another possibility in attempting to distinguish between rural and urban populations might lie in the choice of a certain population density per square mile as a dividing line. The insoluble difficulty, however, would be to agree a figure which would suit a wide range of countries and environments.