5.2 Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods

What affects land-use patterns?  

Rural Settlement Patterns

Clustered 

• Families live in close proximity to each other

• Agriculture based community- composed of houses and farm buildings 

• Fields surround the community 

Dispersed 

• Farmers live in their own, individual farms - isolated from other farmers 

• Separated, spread out community (unlike clustered)

Linear 

• Buildings run along a fixed landscape (i.e. a road, river, canal) 
  • Buildings form a straight line 

• Clustered settlement - small to medium-sized

Rural Survey Methods 

Long Lot

• Land is divided into narrow lots perpendicular to a river, road, or canal 

• These lots stretch from buildings or houses to the river, road, etc. 

• Gives everyone equal access to the “resource” (i.e. the river, road, or whatever else the lot connects to) 

Metes and Bounds 

• Defines the boundaries of a piece of land based on the physical landscape, directions, and distances 

• Metes = a specific, measured boundary 

• Bounds = a general boundary (waterways, walls, existing buildings, etc) 

Township and Range 

• Land is divided into six-mile square blocks (townships) and divided again into one-mile square blocks (range) 

• Ranges are broken further into smaller parcels for people to develop

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