Why is population size on its own a poor way to separate rural from urban?

Because the threshold is arbitrary and varies between countries, so the same settlement could be classed differently depending on which definition is used. Population size also ignores function: a small settlement of a few thousand may act as a market town providing services to a wide rural catchment and behave in an urban way, while a large commuter village of similar size has almost no services at all and behaves in a rural way.

Distinguish between rural and urban settlement in terms of employment structure.

In rural settlement a comparatively high proportion of the workforce is in primary employment, chiefly agriculture, forestry, fishing and quarrying, with limited local secondary or tertiary work, and many residents commute out to work. In urban settlement primary employment is very small and the workforce is concentrated in secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (retail, health, education, finance) and quaternary (research and information) sectors, with employment supplied within the settlement itself.

What is meant by a settlement's sphere of influence, and how does it differ between rural and urban places?

The sphere of influence is the area from which a settlement draws people for its services, work and facilities. Rural settlements have a small sphere of influence, often only the settlement itself and a few surrounding farms, because their services are low order and used frequently but locally. Urban settlements have a large sphere of influence because they offer high-order services such as hospitals, universities, department stores and stadiums that people will travel long distances to use less often.

CCEA AS-Level Geography 3910

Processes That Shape Fluvial Environments

Topic overview The drainage basin as an open system Storm hydrographs Factors influencing storm hydrographs Annual hydrographs and river regimes River erosion and transportation Deposition and the Hjulstrom curve Erosional and mixed river landforms Depositional river landforms

Human Interaction in Fluvial Environments

Topic overview Why rivers are channelised, and the methods used Environmentally sensitive and sustainable river management The causes of river flooding The effects of flooding on people, property and land

Global Biomes

Topic overview The global distribution of biomes The tundra biome: climate and soils The temperate grassland biome: climate and soils Climate change and tundra ecosystems

Small-Scale Ecosystems

Topic overview Biotic and abiotic components Ecosystems as open systems Trophic structure and ecological pyramids Nutrient cycling and the nutrient cycling model Plant succession and seral stages Climatic climax and plagioclimax vegetation

The Processes That Shape Our Weather and Climate

Topic overview The global energy balance Vertical and horizontal heat transfer in the atmosphere Ocean currents and the transfer of heat Pressure belts, the Coriolis effect and the pressure gradient The tri-cellular model, the global winds, and where it breaks down Jet streams and the upper westerly winds Global patterns of temperature, pressure, wind and precipitation Factors influencing air temperature

Weather in the British Isles

Topic overview How precipitation forms Air masses affecting the British Isles The polar front and the birth of a depression The life cycle of a depression, and its fronts The sequence of weather as a depression passes Anticyclones in summer and winter Isobars, wind, and the front symbols on a synoptic chart Station circles, recognising systems, and satellite images

Global Weather Issues

Topic overview The Pacific in a normal year: the Walker circulation El Niño events and their global consequences La Niña events and their global consequences How tropical cyclones form The structure of a tropical cyclone The impacts of a tropical cyclone on people and property Managing tropical cyclones: prediction, preparation and response

Population Data

Topic overview Census taking, vital registration, and how the data is collected The reliability of the data, and the use made of it

Population Change

Topic overview Fertility and mortality measures, and why crude rates are crude The demographic transition model The epidemiological transition

Population and Resources

Topic overview Overpopulation, underpopulation and optimum population Malthus and Boserup, and how they hold up Fertility policies, and evaluating one

Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe

Topic overview Defining rural and urban settlement The rural-urban continuum Issues affecting the rural-urban fringe Greenfield and brownfield development Suburbanisation Counterurbanisation

Planning in Rural Environments

Topic overview Why the countryside needs planning protection ASSIs and SSSIs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty National parks A national park for Northern Ireland: the case for, the case against, and the verdict

Urban Challenges in MEDC and LEDC Cities

Topic overview Economic and social deprivation in the MEDC inner city Re-urbanisation in the MEDC city Gentrification and its consequences Urban growth and informal settlements in the LEDC city Service provision in the LEDC city Economic activity and the informal economy in the LEDC city

Measuring Development

Topic overview Why 'development' resists definition Two economic measures: GDP and GNI per capita Two social measures: infant mortality and adult literacy Two composite measures: the HDI and the Gender Inequality Index Using the measures together to describe global contrasts

Reducing the Development Gap

Topic overview The Millennium Development Goals: aims and framework Evaluating two Millennium Development Goals The 2030 Agenda and the Global Goals How the Global Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals Globalisation as a route to development in LEDCs Aid and development in LEDCs, and judging development in one

Emerging Markets

Topic overview What an emerging market is BRICS and MINT: what the labels group, and why they are contested Why emerging markets have grown, and one economy studied

Data Collection

Topic overview Collecting primary data in the field Sampling methods: random, systematic, stratified and pragmatic Point, line and quadrat sampling Ordnance Survey maps and map reading Photographs and satellite images as evidence Synoptic charts and remotely sensed data

Data Processing

Topic overview Geographical information systems, and mapping techniques Annotated sketch maps, and the graph types Triangular graphs Mean, median, mode and range Spearman's rank correlation Nearest neighbour analysis Chi-squared (A2 only)Location quotient (A2 only)Developing investigative skills, and the conventions of mapping and graphical work

Fieldwork Skills and Techniques

Topic overview Framing a geographical question and designing the enquiry Fieldwork safety, hazards and contingency planning Choosing and justifying sampling techniques for an investigation Collecting quantitative and qualitative evidence Describing and evaluating data collection methods Presenting evidence in cartographic, diagrammatic and graphical form Choosing and applying statistical techniques Analysing evidence and drawing conclusions Evaluating methods, evidence and the limitations of conclusions

Planning and Recording an Investigation

Topic overview Choosing an issue, hypothesis or question Identifying appropriate sources and methods Describing the study area, stating aims, and recording data

Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe

6 subtopics
18 things to know
Unit AS 2

What Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe covers

Settlement change and the rural-urban fringe is examined in Unit AS 2, Human Geography. It covers defining rural and urban settlement, the rural-urban continuum, issues affecting the rural-urban fringe, greenfield and brownfield development, suburbanisation and counterurbanisation.

Where it is assessed

Unit AS 2

Human Geography, written examination, 16% of A level.

Check the CCEA specification ↗

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page. CCEA AS Geography students sit this topic in the first year.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

What do geographers mean by an urban settlement?

Key term

What do geographers mean by a rural settlement?

Key term

Which criteria are used to decide whether a settlement is rural or urban?

Key term

Describe how you would draw the rural-urban continuum as a diagram, and what it would show.

Key term

Which characteristics increase as you move from the rural end of the continuum towards the urban end?

Key term

Explain why the rural-urban continuum is a useful concept for planners.

Key term

Why does so much development pressure concentrate on the rural-urban fringe?

Key term

What kinds of land use are typically found in the rural-urban fringe?

Key term

What conflicts arise in the rural-urban fringe?

Key term

Why do developers prefer greenfield sites?

Evaluation

What are the advantages of building on brownfield sites?

Evaluation

What are the disadvantages of building on brownfield sites?

Key term

How does suburbanisation differ from counterurbanisation?

Key term

What pushed people out of the inner city during suburbanisation?

Key term

What pulled people out to the suburbs?

Key term

What is counterurbanisation?

Key term

Why do people move out of cities to rural areas?

Key term

What factors have made counterurbanisation possible?

Take Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

Suburbanisation vs Counterurbanisation
Suburbanisation: the outward growth of a city into the land at its edge. Counterurbanisation: the movement of people out to smaller towns and villages beyond it.
Greenfield vs Brownfield
Greenfield: land that has never been built on. Brownfield: land built on before and now available for reuse.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What do geographers mean by an urban settlement?
Model answer
A settlement with a large, densely concentrated population living at high residential density, where the great majority of people work in secondary, tertiary and quaternary employment rather than on the land. Urban settlements have a built-up continuous area of land use, a wide range of services and functions serving a large surrounding area, a complex internal structure of distinct land-use zones, and good transport connections.
2
What do geographers mean by a rural settlement?
Model answer
A settlement with a small, sparsely distributed population living at low residential density in open countryside, where a higher proportion of land is under agriculture, forestry or other primary uses. Rural settlements typically have few services, a narrow range of functions serving only a small local area, a simple internal structure, strong local social networks and greater dependence on private transport.
3
Which criteria are used to decide whether a settlement is rural or urban?
Model answer
Population size; population density; land use (proportion under farming, forestry and open space against built-up area); employment structure (proportion in primary work against secondary and tertiary); the range and number of services and functions; the size of the sphere of influence or catchment area; the degree of accessibility and transport provision; and social characteristics such as community cohesion and the pace of life.
4
Why is population size on its own a poor way to separate rural from urban?
Model answer
Because the threshold is arbitrary and varies between countries, so the same settlement could be classed differently depending on which definition is used. Population size also ignores function: a small settlement of a few thousand may act as a market town providing services to a wide rural catchment and behave in an urban way, while a large commuter village of similar size has almost no services at all and behaves in a rural way.
5
Distinguish between rural and urban settlement in terms of employment structure.
Model answer
In rural settlement a comparatively high proportion of the workforce is in primary employment, chiefly agriculture, forestry, fishing and quarrying, with limited local secondary or tertiary work, and many residents commute out to work. In urban settlement primary employment is very small and the workforce is concentrated in secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (retail, health, education, finance) and quaternary (research and information) sectors, with employment supplied within the settlement itself.
6
What is meant by a settlement's sphere of influence, and how does it differ between rural and urban places?
Model answer
The sphere of influence is the area from which a settlement draws people for its services, work and facilities. Rural settlements have a small sphere of influence, often only the settlement itself and a few surrounding farms, because their services are low order and used frequently but locally. Urban settlements have a large sphere of influence because they offer high-order services such as hospitals, universities, department stores and stadiums that people will travel long distances to use less often.

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Processes That Shape Fluvial Environments

Human Interaction in Fluvial Environments

Global Biomes

Small-Scale Ecosystems

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Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe revision questions

Is Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe examined at AS in CCEA Geography?: Yes. It sits in Unit AS 2, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
What does Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe cover in CCEA AS-Level Geography?: 6 subtopics: defining rural and urban settlement, the rural-urban continuum, issues affecting the rural-urban fringe, greenfield and brownfield development, suburbanisation and counterurbanisation. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe organised?: By the CCEA 3910 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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