Settlement Patterns Rural and Urban Life

Rural Urban Large areas with low concentrations of people. Smaller areas with high concentrations of people

What affects rural population patterns? What kind of resources are in the area? How did people travel when the area was settled? What role did government play in the settlement?

What kind of resources are in the area? The kinds of resources available change the reason why people come to the area. That changes the way people settle. Examples: If people want to farm, they’ll probably not want to make a big concentrated city, because their farms will keep them far apart. If people want to mine, they’ll want to live close together, near the mine, so towns develop.

How did people travel when the area was settled? Any area settled in Canada before 1800 is near water. Rivers were used for transportation. Areas settled after 1800 were based on roads and railways.

What role did government play in the settlement? Some settlement happens naturally, because people want to move to an area that has a particular resource. Some settlement happens because the government has encouraged it. Government controls settlement patterns by deciding which land is to be settled, the pattern of roads, and so on.

Cities Towns and cities developed because of farming. Farming led to extra food, and meant that people had to stay in one spot. The earliest cities started to emerge about 5000 years ago. In Canada, a town becomes a city after reaching a population of 10,000 or higher.

The 10 Largest Cities in Canada (2006) Toronto, Ontario 4,753,120 Montreal, Quebec 3,316,615 Vancouver, British Columbia 1,953,252 Calgary, Alberta 988,079 Edmonton, Alberta 862,544 Ottawa–Gatineau, Ontario/Quebec 860,928 Quebec City, Quebec 659,545 Hamilton, Ontario 647, 634 Winnipeg, Manitoba 641,483 Kitchener, Ontario 422,514

Types of Urban Places For an urban place to develop, it needs an activity (or activities) to drive its economy, or bring money into the community. This is called a “basic industry”.

City Types - Industry Types – City Example Industrial Cities – Detroit, Hamilton Transportation Hubs – Winnipeg, Halifax Tourist Cities – Las Vegas, Orlando Service Centres (government) - Ottawa, Wash. DC Resource-Based Community - Thompson, Sudbury

The Multiplier Effect “Basic” jobs are jobs that are part of the basic industry. EX/ Miners in Sudbury “Non-basic jobs” are jobs are not basic, but that depend on basic jobs for their existence. EX/ A teacher that teaches the miners’ kids in Sudbury. There are usually 3 non-basic jobs for every basic job. If a factory hires 100 workers, it really means that 400 new jobs will come to the community (100 basic + 300 non-basic).

7 Location Factors for Manufacturing If you’re going to set up an factory, picking where you’re going to put it is very important. There are seven factors to remember:

Availability of Raw Building Materials (What are you building with Availability of Raw Building Materials (What are you building with? Where will you get it?) Location of Markets (Who are you selling to? Setting up near your customers often helps sales) Availability of Fresh Water and Power (How are you going to run your factory?) Labour Supply (Who’s going to run the factory? What skills will they need?) Political Factors (Will the local government help you to keep costs low with things like low taxes?) Transportation (Will you have fast and efficient transportation to get your stuff to market, and to get the supplies you need?) Circumstances (Are there other, similar factories in the area? Where is the person who started the business from?)