LESSON 5: HUMAN SETTLEMENT FACTORS
Learning Goal: We are learning to identify and evaluate the physical and human factors that influence our patterns of settlement.
Geography in Action:
This plan for a highway development in Iceland has been blocked several times. What reasons do you think might affect where a government decides to build a road?
As a class we discussed: mountains, lava fields, safety (need for curves), the environment, recreation, soil, etc...
This particular road, however, was blocked for a completely human (or almost human...) reason: local "Elf consultants" were concerned that the road would be disruptive to an elf church they claimed the road ran through.
Elf Church Disrupts Building
There are many reasons why humans make the choices they do about building settlements.
Factors include:
As a class we discussed: mountains, lava fields, safety (need for curves), the environment, recreation, soil, etc...
This particular road, however, was blocked for a completely human (or almost human...) reason: local "Elf consultants" were concerned that the road would be disruptive to an elf church they claimed the road ran through.
Elf Church Disrupts Building
There are many reasons why humans make the choices they do about building settlements.
Factors include:
- Physical Features
- Body of water (transportation routes, water for drinking and farming)
- Flat land (easy to build)
- Fertile soil (for crops)
- Forests (timber and housing)
- Human Factors
- people who share a common language, religion or culture
- social network or supports
- quality of life
- employment
Human Settlement Factors:
Factors can be push or pull. Push factors encourage a family to emigrate (pushes them to leave a location). Pull factors encourage a family to immigrate (pulls them in to move to a location).
Action Item: Group Skit "Leaving Home"
In small groups, you will plan and perform a short skit (1 minute maximum) that shows a family discussing the reasons to leave their homeland and move to a new place. Consider the factors explored above in your skit.