The Geography of Settlement. Is Canada’s population evenly distributed across the country?

The Geography of Settlement

Where You Live

Is Canada’s population

evenly distributed across the country?

Why

Settlement Patternsthe arrangement of where people live in a country and the factors that influence the arrangement

Why is our population distributed this way?

3 Basic Patterns

General Settlement Patterns

Disperse

d

found in areas that have a strong agricultural base;

spread out on farms

Concentrated

found where resources are

focused in small areas; towns

Linear

a type of concentrated pattern found along lines

(e.g. highway, river)

There are 2 main categories in Canada: Rural

and Urban

Rural Canada

Factors that Affect the Pattern

1. Type of Resources in area (agriculture, forestry, fishing, etc.. )

2. Transportation methods available at the time of settlement ( water transport usually preceded roads)

3. Role government policy played in settlement (planning, size and shape of lots, survey system of area)

Types of Rural Settlement Patterns

•Settled before railways and good roads and surveys

• Most important influence is agricultural resources and river transport

• Long thin farms were built along the St. Lawrence River; each farm had access to the river for transportation

• Known as long lots; when river lots were taken, a second (& 3rd and 4th) were settled were settled on a road parallel to the river

- every owner has access to water or road transport routes

- homes are close to each other

- lots are inefficient to farm

- larger towns are usually farther away

• Settlement also influenced by agricultural resources

• Settled after a survey system was in place

• Access to major water was not as important because roads were already established

•Roads were typically 2 km apart and farms were 40-80 hectares in size

• Groupings of concession blocks were called townships and groups of townships were called counties

- every owner has access to road or railway transport routes

- farms are more efficient to work

- houses are farther away from each other

•Surveyed before major settlement occurred using the “Section System”

• Land was divided into blocks 94 km2 (9.6km2 by 9.6km2 ) in size

• Each block is divided into 36 sections, each of which is divided into 4 lots called quarter-sections (64 ha in size)

• Due to low rainfall levels, farms needed to be made bigger in order to survive. This gave rise to “farm consolidation”

- every owner has access to road or railway transport routes

- farms are very efficient to work, especially with machinery

- houses are very isolated from each other

Family farms are disappearing

Farms are becoming largerAgribusiness-operations that own and

farm vast amounts of land

Other Industries- industries involving natural resources and tourism

Rural Canada Today

Urbanization- so many people move into rural areas close to existing cities that these areas become urban

Why has this happened?Modern machinery- fewer jobsInterest- young people don’t want to farmJobs- more jobs availableLifestyle- more things to do and more people

to meet

Rural- Urban Migration

Only about 10% of Canada’s land is good for farming and was settled by Europeans early, but as the areas got settled, communities grew outward to a point where now 18% of Class 1 farmland is used for urban purposes

Rural-Urban Fringe- where the city and the countryside meet

This surrounds every major city in Canada

Rural-Urban Fringe

RuralFarmingCamping UrbanHousingIndustryBusiness

Land Uses

Uses will be things not usually found in built up areas, but not far from a population centre

What do you think could be and example of this?

This land use can quickly change as a city grows into it

Land Use on the Fringe

Urban Sprawl- urban growth that happens quickly

What factors effect the development of farmland to urban areas?

Interest of developers in landCitizens against development can slow down

processPolitics- zoning by-laws

Loss of Farmland to Cities

Page 125- Questions 14 a and b, 15 a and b, 16

Page 127- Questions 17 a-c, 20

Textbook Task