A settlement is a place where people live. Its site is the land it stands on. Its situation is its position relative to routes, resources and other settlements.
The idea
People settle where they can get water, food, reasonably flat land and a way to move goods. A wet point site in a dry area sits at a spring or a river. A dry point site in a wet area sits on slightly higher ground. Defence, a crossing of a river, a mineral, and a market on a route have all started towns. Site is the ground under the houses. Situation is the wider setting. Mixing the two words loses a mark that the definitions would have saved.
A nucleated settlement clusters the houses together, often around a market, a chief's compound or a crossroads. A dispersed settlement scatters the houses, common where each farm needs a large area. A linear settlement follows a road, a river or a coast. Functions change as a place grows: a farming village may add trade, administration and industry. When you explain a pattern, give the reason, not only the shape. "The houses are together" describes nucleation. It does not explain it.
What earns the marks
Site and situation are a pair the paper likes. One sentence each is enough if each sentence is right. For a pattern, name it and give one reason it occurs. A sketch is useful in the booklet. In words, "along the road" is linear, "around the market" is nucleated, "each compound on its own farm" is dispersed. Do not call every village nucleated.
Practice questions
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
1Question 1
4 marks
(a) Distinguish between the site and the situation of a settlement. (2 marks)
(b) State two physical factors that attract settlement. (2 marks)
Model answer
(a) Site is the actual land the settlement stands on. Situation is its location in relation to other places, routes or resources.
(b) A reliable water supply, and land that is not too steep to build on.
Mark scheme
Site: the ground occupied1 mark
Situation: the relation to surroundings, routes or other settlements1 mark
One physical factor, such as water, relief, soil or drainage1 mark
A second physical factor1 mark
2Question 2
4 marks
Explain one reason for a nucleated pattern and one reason for a dispersed pattern. (4 marks)
Model answer
Houses cluster where people share a market, a water point or defence, so the settlement is nucleated. Houses scatter where farmland is in large separate holdings and each family lives on its land, so the pattern is dispersed.
Mark scheme
Nucleated: a shared point such as water, a market or defence2 marks
Dispersed: extensive farming or a need to live on the land worked2 marks
3Question 3
1 mark
What is a linear settlement? (1 mark)
Model answer
A settlement whose houses follow a line, such as a road, a river or the coast.
Mark scheme
Buildings arranged along a road, river or coast1 mark
Practise Geography with Anna
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
What is the difference between site and situation?+
Site is the land the settlement is built on: its relief, drainage and water. Situation is where that site sits in the wider area, relative to roads, rivers, markets and other towns.
What is a nucleated settlement?+
One in which the houses are grouped together, often around a shared point such as a market, a well or a crossroads. A dispersed settlement has houses scattered, often on separate farms. A linear settlement follows a road or a river. All WASSCE Geography past questions