In Africa, 90% of the population is concentrated in less than 21% of the land surface and the average per-person travel time to settlements of more than 50,000 inhabitants is around 3.5 hours, with Central and East Africa displaying the longest average travel times.

How has the spread of manufacturing to developing countries changed their patterns of settlement? Population has declined because of large-scale migration to more developed countries. Population has become distributed more evenly as urban workers seek free land.

Policies and public actions matter to population growth. The large variations in population across countries are caused by factors such as levels of education, poverty, urbanization, access to health care including family planning methods and attitudes towards population growth.

Settlements provide a spatial focus for most human activity, and therefore also strongly affect local land cover, water quality, and biodiversity [2]. Analyzing the spatial patterns of settlements can contribute to greater understanding of land use changes, ecological processes, cultures and lifestyles, etc.

Some of the factors that have positive influence on developing a human settlement are water supply, flat and arable land, protection, shelter from weather, bridging point, crossroad – intersection of roads, while land that floods, marshy or steep land, no protection, no building or water supply, may be considered to be …

Answer: Based on the patterns the settlements form, we can classify them as circular, linear, parallel, radical etc.

Settlement patterns are influenced by the price of land, available transportation infrastructure, public policy initiatives, and social and ecological processes that are not necessarily quantifiable.

Many settlements around the world have found that their functions have had to change over time. One such example is that of small farming villages finding that their residents are moving out to find jobs in the cities. This leaves the village empty, apart from the older population.

Physical factors often determine the location of a settlement as things like slope, water supply, defence, building materials and resources often were and are considered.

The site of a settlement is the actual land that the settlements is built upon. The situation is the location of a settlement in relation to the things that are around it. Physical factors that influence the location of a settlement include; 1.

The factors that affect the location of rural settlements are as under:

• Water supply: Generally the rural settlements are found near or around water bodies such as lakes, ponds and rivers because of the water supply is easily available.
• Land: The man chooses the land where agriculture is possible.

The Urban settlement includes cities and towns. On the other hand, the rural settlement includes villages and hamlets. There is greater isolation from nature in urban areas, due to the existence of the built environment. Conversely, rural areas are in direct contact with nature, as natural elements influence them.

A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. A dispersed settlement contrasts with a nucleated village.

There are many characteristics of Scattered settlements.for eg;

• These settlements have limited populations as in small hamlets.(pada , wadi etc).
• Facilities and services in these settlements are not adequate.
• As these settlements are closer to nature, they are free from pollution.

Generally , such settlements are found in the areas of high relief , dense forests , grasslands , hot deserts and extensive agricultural lands. Scattered settlements have limited populations as in small hamlets i.e pada , wadi etc.

Examples of scattered settlements in India can be found in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan, forest area of northeast India, the Shiwaliks, and in the valleys of Jammu and Kashmir.

Settlements in hill areas : These are largely characteristics by dispersed settlements. The home in hilly areas are scatted. ii. Setlements in plains : It is rectamgular in shape.

Deserts have scattered settlement​ because ‘sustainability’ is used rather than ‘viability’ for a particular purpose.