2 URBANISATION TYPES OF SETTLEMENT Do you live in a big city, a town or a village? What kind of facilities can be found there? What is the most famous high-tech industry area in the USA? Areas which include some of the most important universities in the world, such as the towns of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. In Italian, the equivalent term of City Region is Città Metropolitana. ONLINE RESOURCES Edward Hopper, the painter of American urban landscape What is a settlement? A settlement is a place where people live. It can be classified as urban (towns, cities and megalopolis, usually with high population density, providing local government offices) or rural (small villages or scattered farms with low population density and a small number of services). A settlement can be classified according to its main function: manufacturing, hi-tech industry , administrative centre, port, holiday resort, educational , farming and agricultural. Every settlement has a specific land use pattern which is linked to factors such as history, culture, housing types, local climate, natural environment, available transport and town planning. Types of settlements Megacities main centres of world economy with the most important centres of banking and finance such as London, New York, Tokyo. Conurbations groups of towns spread and joined together forming an area with high population, often with a large city as its centre. educational: collegato al mondo dell istruzione farming: coltivazione e/o allevamento lacking: mancante leisure time: tempo libero manufacturing: industria manifatturiera range: serie reliant on: dipendente da scattered: disseminato, sparpagliato to spread: espandersi to trade: commerciare An example is BosWash, formed by coastline cities and towns from Boston to Washington, on the East Coast of the United States. City large settlement reliant on commerce, manufacturing and industries. A City Region is a network of urban communities, sharing resources such as a central business area, labour market and transport network. A City Region is an area where most of its population work, trade, shop, live and spend leisure time. Towns smaller urban areas lacking the range of facilities of a city. A town usually has permanent boundaries and a local form of government. Though the classification of an area such as a town or city is related to the population size, different countries have different methods of making this classification. In the U.S., a city is just a legal term that means an urban area with autonomous power. Village settlement in a rural area with only basic services such as a church (or a mosque or temple), a small food shop, a bar, and sometimes a post office. Hamlet small group of farms in a rural area without any services. Sidney, Australia 254 SETTLEMENTS