Class 7, Geography
Chapter 9: Human Environment
Settlement, Communication Transport
Questions Included are:
Define Settlement?
What are the two types of settlement?
What are the factors influencing the settlement?
Difference between Rural and Urban settlement?
Explain the pattern of rural settlement?
How houses are built in rural area?
How urban settlements are classified?
How rural and urban areas are dependent on each other?
Transport system
How many transport systems are there?
Write a short note on Roadways?
Write the difference between the National and State highway?
Write a short note on railways?
Why railways are important in areas with high density?
What are Intercontinental railways give example?
Write short note on Waterways?
Write short note on Inland waterways?
How are Navigable rivers linked?
What is Ocean transport?
Write a short note on Airways?
What is Communication?
Why world is known as Global Village?
Write short note on Mass media?
List some major mass media agencies?
Define Settlement?
- A Settlement is defined as a place where people build their houses.
- During early ages, when humans were nomads they settled in particular places for few days called as Temporary Settlement.
- But now due to vast development people build houses and stay there for long period of time called as Permanent Settlement.
What are the two types of settlement?
The two types of settlements are Rural settlement and Urban settlement.
What are the factors influencing the settlement?
The factors influencing the settlement are
- Fertility of the soil
- Availability of land and water
- Favourable climate
- Proper network of transport and communication
- Industrial growth
Difference between Rural and Urban settlement?
| Rural settlement | Urban settlement |
| In rural settlement population is less | In urban settlement, population is huge |
| Villagers comes under rural settlement | Towns and cities comes under urban settlement |
| Majority of the people involved in activities such as cattle rearing, agriculture, fishing etc. | The activities involved by the people are commerce, trade, industry, administration, etc. |
| Very less facility of the bank, hospital, school, shopping complexes, entertainment centres etc. are found here | In urban settlement there is abundance of facilities of bank, school, hospitals, shopping complex entertainment center etc. |
| Rural settlements are scattered | Urban settlements are compact |
| Four pattern of rural settlements areNucleated patternScattered settlementLinear settlementRadial settlement | Six pattern of urban settlements areAdministrative townsDefence townsCultural townsIndustrial townsMarket townsPort towns |
Explain the pattern of rural settlement?
Nucleated/Compact pattern:
Houses are around the centre of the fertile plains and locations because here the land is flat and the accessibility is good
Scattered settlement:
These are found mostly in the hilly regions, deserts and forest area. They are scattered over large area.
Linear settlement:
This Settlement evolves along road, canal having row of houses facing each other
Radial settlement:
Here, streets radiate from common point in several directions
How houses are built in rural area?
- Houses are built on stilt to overcome the floods.
- In hot regions houses are plastered with mud, and have thatched roof while slanting roofs are found in regions of heavy rainfall
How urban settlements are classified?
- Administrative towns include
- Provinces
- States
- Districts
- Capital cities of Countries etc.
- Example: Washington DC National Capital Territory(NCT) New Delhi
Industrial towns:
Industrial towns includes manufacturing industries such as Durgapur in West Bengal and Osaka in Japan
Port towns:
- These are developed around harbour and very important for trading and distribution centres.
- Ex: New York, Tokyo, Kolkata, Mumbai
Defence towns:
Defence towns include the centre of Military activities
Ex: Danapur, Jalandhar, etc.
Cultural towns:
- These are Centre for art, culture and education
- Ex: Shantiniketan in India, Oxford and Cambridge in UK
- Religious centre – Ayodhya, Mecca, Jerusalem etc.
Market towns:
- Market towns are classified as a meeting point for exchange of goods and services, distribution and collection centres.
- Ex: Chicago in USA and Bardhhaman in West Bengal.
How rural and urban areas are dependent on each other?
- Villagers supplies the products such as vegetables, fruits, food grains, agricultural raw material and labourers to town.
- In turn, towns give employment, social, utility services and industrial goods to villagers.
- But now large part of the population are migrating from rural to urban and this affects the economy and overcrowding in the cities.
Transport system
Earlier donkey, mules, bullock, camels, yaks are used for transport.
Nowadays travel is made easier, faster, more comfortable, helping in saving time and energy.
How many transport systems are there?
- Roadways
- Railways
- Waterways
- Airways
Write a short note on Roadways?
- Roads are important and common means of transport.
- Through roads, goods can be delivered at the doorstep.
- There are metalled and unmetalled roads.
- Highways are called by different names in different countries
- Autobahns in Germany
- Motorways in UK
- Auto routes in France
- Highways/ Freeways in USA
- Highest density of the road transport is in USA
- Highways have 6 to 8 lanes
- USA highways connects the cities on the eastern and the western coast and all the important towns of the country.
Write the difference between the National and State highway?
| National highways | State highways |
| These highways are constructed and maintained by the central government. | These highways are constructed and maintained by the state government. |
| They connect the state capitals and industrial cities with harbours | They connect the state capitals with district towns. |
| Ex: NH 44, the longest highway between Srinagar and Kanyakumari. | Example, Central Road connecting the Mysore and Bangalore is a state highway. |
Write a short note on railways?
- Steam engine was first invented by James Watt.
- It is one of the fastest means of land transport
- Two factors that played a crucial role in the development of modern railway are electric locomotive and electrification of the railway tracks
- Railway network in India is the largest in Asia on 4th largest in the world.
Why railways are important in areas with high density?
- Areas with high density population and long distance require railways as a mode of transport-to-transport large number of the people from one place to another.
- Ex: Mumbai Shuttle train (lifeline of Mumbai)
- Metro trains in Delhi
What are Intercontinental railways give example?
- Intercontinental railways connect one end of the continent to another
- Example: Trans Australian Railways, it connects Sydney to Perth.
- Canadian Pacific Railways it connects the Vancouver to Montreal
- Trans Siberian Railways it connects the Moscow with Vladistok. It is the longest railway system
Write short note on Waterways?
- Waterways provided by the Seas and oceans are the cheapest means of transport.
- It is useful for carrying heavy and bulk goods.
- International trade in bulk is carried out using the sea routes.
Write short note on Inland waterways?
- Navigable rivers and lakes are used as Inland waterways.
- They carry cargo, passengers and is the cheapest mode of transport.
- World’s largest and busiest inland waterways is Great Lake between USA and Canada along with St. Lawrence River.
- In India Ganga Brahmaputra River system is used
How are Navigable rivers linked?
Navigable rivers are interlinked by many countries with canals. Ex: Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Keil Canal
What is Ocean transport?
- Ocean transport is the easiest way to transport people and materials from one continent to another
- International trade is made possible only because of ocean transport.
- Ex: North Atlantic Route
- Mediterranean Indian Ocean Route
- Cape of Good Hope Route
- Panama Canal, South Atlantic Route.
Write a short note on Airways?
- Airways is the fastest mode of transport in early 20th century
- It is the expensive mode of transport
- For remote inaccessible areas, Airways is the only mode of transport
- Air routes connect major cities of the world.
- There are two types of airports. They are Domestic and International airways
- International airways carries cargo and passengers to other countries.
- Ex: International Airport in New Delhi, London, Chicago.
- Domestic Airways run within the boundaries of the countries.
- Some countries, South America, Africa, lack the facilities of the air transport
- They do not have infrastructure for air transport.
What is Communication?
- Communication means sharing of ideas and information through different mediums.
- Some common communication devices that are invented are
- 1791, Semaphore
- 1837, Samuel Morse – Morse Code
- 1912, Air mail
- 1875, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
Why world is known as Global Village?
The new method of communication have reduced the distance across the globe by the invention of satellites. This helps in Weather forecasting
Write short note on Mass media?
Large number of the people communicate at the same time using Newspaper, Radio, Television. This is known as Mass media
List some major mass media agencies?
BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation
CNN – Cable News Network
UNI – United News of India
PTI – Press Trust India
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