Settlement patterns
A settlement is an area where people live and carry out their daily activities. There are three main patterns:
- Nucleated (clustered): houses are built close together at one point, often at a road junction or water source, such as a small town.
- Linear: houses stretch in a line along a road, river or coast.
- Dispersed (scattered): houses are spread far apart, common in farming areas or highlands.
Key idea
A linear pattern follows an elongated feature such as a road or river, while a nucleated pattern clusters at one point such as a junction.
Settlement functions
Each settlement has a main function, including:
- Administration: a government centre such as Putrajaya.
- Mining: a settlement that grew because of minerals, such as a coal town.
- Trade: a centre of buying, selling and business.
- Port and industry: a focus of transport and factories.
A settlement's function can change over time as economic activity develops, for example a fishing village becoming a tourism town.
The factors that shape settlement patterns and distribution include water supply, soil fertility, relief and the transport system. Early settlements usually formed on river banks because water was easy to obtain for daily use and farming. Once roads and railways were built, new settlements grew along these transport routes instead.