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A. Global Settlement: Patterns and Sustainability · Global Settlement: Patterns and Sustainability

Clustered, Linear and Scattered: Settlement Patterns

A3.1 A2.4About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can identify clustered, linear and scattered settlement patterns on maps and aerial images.
  • I can explain what causes each pattern.
  • I can describe the difference between urban and rural settlement.
  • I can give Canadian examples of each pattern, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.

Words to know

settlement pattern
The shape or arrangement that buildings and communities make on the land when seen from above.
clustered settlement
Buildings grouped closely together around a central point, such as a crossroads, harbour or mine. Also called nucleated settlement.
linear settlement
Buildings arranged in a line, along a road, river, railway, coast or valley.
scattered settlement
Buildings spread out with large spaces between them, such as farms in farming country. Also called dispersed settlement.
urban
Describes a built-up area with many people living close together: a town or city.
rural
Describes the countryside, where fewer people live farther apart, often on farms or in small communities.
aerial photograph
A photo taken from above, from an airplane, drone or satellite.

Let's start with a view from above

Next time you fly in a plane, or look at a satellite view on a map app, look down at the buildings. Sometimes they are packed together in a tight bunch. Sometimes they follow a road or a river like beads on a string. Sometimes they are dotted far apart across fields.

In the last lesson you looked at where people live on a global scale. Now you'll zoom in to the local scale and look at the shapes that settlements make. Geographers call these shapes settlement patterns.

An aerial view of long, narrow farm fields running back from a wide river, with farmhouses lined up along a road beside the water.
A linear pattern seen from above: along the St. Lawrence, long narrow lots gave each farm some river front, so the houses line up like beads on a string. AI-generated image

Three basic patterns

1. Clustered (nucleated). Buildings are grouped tightly around a centre. A cluster forms where something important brings people together: a crossroads, a harbour, a mine, a water source, or a hill that was easy to defend. Most towns and cities are clustered.

2. Linear. Buildings form a line. This happens when people want to be close to something long and narrow: a road, a river, a railway, a coastline or a narrow valley between mountains.

3. Scattered (dispersed). Buildings are spread out. This is common in farming areas, where each family lives on its own land and needs a lot of space to grow crops or raise animals.

clusteredlinearscatteredaerial views, schematic, not to scale
Three settlement patterns seen from above. Left: clustered, houses grouped around a crossroads. Middle: linear, houses lined up along both banks of a river. Right: scattered, farmhouses spread out across fields (the dashed lines are field boundaries). Schematic, not to scale.

Canadian examples

  • Linear, along the St. Lawrence River. Under the seigneurial system in New France, land was divided into long, narrow lots that ran back from the river. Every farm got some river frontage for water and travel, so the farmhouses formed a line along the river. You can still see this pattern in Quebec today.
  • Linear, Métis river lots. Métis families along the Red River in Manitoba and the South Saskatchewan River (for example, at Batoche) also used long, narrow river lots, so each family had river access, a hay meadow and woodland. Métis communities continue today across the Prairies and beyond.
  • Scattered, the Prairies. Most Prairie farmland was surveyed into a square grid of sections and quarter-sections. Each family lived on its own farm, so farmhouses are often far apart.
  • Clustered, harbour villages. Many fishing communities in Newfoundland and Labrador are clustered around a sheltered harbour.
  • Clustered, the Arctic. Inuit communities in Nunavut are clustered, and most are on the coast, close to the sea and the animals that people hunt and fish.
  • Linear, on a larger scale. Zoom out, and many Prairie towns are spaced along railway lines. Around the western end of Lake Ontario, cities form a curved band along the shoreline called the Golden Horseshoe.
St. Lawrence long lotsPrairie survey gridriverEvery lot touches the river, so thehouses form a line: LINEARSquare sections (dashed: quarter-sections);one farmhouse per farm: SCATTEREDschematic, not to scale
Two Canadian land-survey systems seen from above. Long lots give every farm a piece of riverbank, so homes line up along the river; the square grid gives each family its own block of land, so homes end up far apart.

Scale matters

The pattern you see depends on how far you zoom out. A single town may be clustered, but a row of towns along a railway is linear at a larger scale. When you describe a pattern, say what scale you are looking at.

Urban and rural

Urban areas are built up, with many people living close together and many services: stores, hospitals, schools, transit. Rural areas are the countryside, with farms, forests, small communities and much lower densities.

Statistics Canada counts a place as a population centre (an urban area) if it has at least 1 000 people and a density of at least 400 people per km². Everywhere else is rural.

Settlements also come in different sizes, from a hamlet (a few homes), to a village, a town, a city, and a metropolis (a very large city with its suburbs). Larger settlements usually offer more services: a small village may have a general store, while a big city has universities, specialized hospitals and an airport.

Worked example

Example: Let's identify the patterns

Read each description of an aerial photo and name the pattern and a likely reason for it.

  1. Houses line both sides of a highway through a narrow mountain valley.
  2. About 200 houses are packed around a bay where fishing boats are tied up.
  3. Barns and farmhouses are about 1 km apart across flat farmland.
  1. Photo 1: the houses form a line, so the pattern is linear. Reason: in a narrow valley the only flat land is beside the highway (and probably a river).
  2. Photo 2: the houses are grouped around one point, so the pattern is clustered. Reason: the sheltered harbour brings people together for fishing.
  3. Photo 3: the buildings are spread far apart, so the pattern is scattered. Reason: each family lives on its own farm and needs a lot of land.

1 linear (valley and highway), 2 clustered (harbour), 3 scattered (farms).

Hands-on activity

Settlement pattern detective

You need: a computer or tablet with a map app that has a satellite view (with a grown-up's permission), paper and a pencil.

  1. Find your own community in satellite view. Zoom in until you can see buildings. Sketch what you see in a box about 10 cm wide. Is the pattern clustered, linear or scattered?
  2. Find a rural area near you (follow a highway out of town until you see fields). Sketch it. What pattern do you see?
  3. Find one more place from this lesson, such as the St. Lawrence River between Québec City and Montréal, or a community in Nunavut such as Iqaluit. Sketch it.
  4. Under each sketch, write the pattern and one physical or human reason for it.

What to look for: cities and towns look clustered; farmland usually looks scattered; houses along the St. Lawrence often look linear, with long, narrow fields behind them.

Just for fun

Riddle: What settlement pattern forms at a party the moment the pizza arrives?

Clustered! Everyone groups tightly around one important central point, just like houses around a harbour.

Your turn

1

Name the three basic settlement patterns.

2

Houses are lined up along both sides of a river. What pattern is this?

3

Give two things that can cause a clustered settlement to form.

4

Why are farmhouses on the Prairies often far apart?

5

Why did Métis families and farmers in New France use long, narrow lots?

6

What two rules does Statistics Canada use for a population centre?

7

Most Inuit communities in Nunavut are on the coast. Give one reason.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is another name for a scattered settlement pattern?

2

What is another name for a clustered settlement pattern?

3

Is a city usually urban or rural?

4

Name one long, narrow feature that can create a linear settlement.

5

What is an aerial photograph?

More practice: on your own

1

A mining company opens a mine in a remote area, and houses, a store and a school are built close to it. What pattern forms, and why?

2

Explain how the same group of settlements could be described as both clustered and linear.

3

Why do larger settlements usually have more services than smaller ones?

4

A town of 800 people has a density of 500 people per km². Is it a population centre under Statistics Canada's rules? Explain.

5

Houses in a narrow mountain valley follow the valley floor. Name the pattern and the physical feature that causes it.

Challenge

1

A new highway is built across scattered farmland. Predict how the settlement pattern might change over 30 years, and explain why.

2

Compare the reasons for linear settlement along the St. Lawrence in New France with linear settlement along a modern highway.

3

A geographer says, "Canada's settlement pattern is clustered at one scale and linear at another." Explain what they mean using what you learned in this lesson and the last one.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Houses are packed tightly around a harbour. What pattern is this?

2.

Which feature is most likely to create a linear settlement?

3.

What is another name for a scattered settlement pattern?

4.

Why did farm lots in New France run back from the St. Lawrence in long, narrow strips?

5.

Which describes a rural area?

6.

Why does scale matter when describing a settlement pattern?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson continues A3.1 (spatial patterns in human settlement) at the local scale, and practises A2.4 (interpreting information with tools and spatial technologies) through aerial and satellite views.

Common difficulties:

  • Calling any small town "scattered". A small town can still be clustered. Scattered means buildings are far apart.
  • Forgetting scale. Ask, "Are we looking at one town or a whole region?"
  • Describing without explaining. Push for the reason: a river, a road, a harbour, farms.

How to help: Explore a satellite view together, especially the St. Lawrence long lots, a Prairie grid and your own neighbourhood. Talk about how your family's community began: was there a river, a railway, a mill or a crossroads? Present First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities as living communities today, as the lesson does.