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
