IB MYP Individuals and Societies – Settlement and urban morphology Revision Notes

These revision notes condense settlement and urban morphology for IB MYP Individuals and Societies into what you need in the final weeks. They are aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014, which lists settlement and urban morphology among the topics explored in the on-screen examinations. They suit MYP years 4 and 5, and there is no SL/HL split in MYP.

MYP has no prescribed content list: schools design their own units, and this page covers a topic the brief lists. For full explanations and longer worked examples, go back to the settlement and urban morphology study guide. When you are ready, try the practice questions. The course hub and printable checklist cover the rest of the course.

Key definitions

Term	Meaning
Urban morphology	The shape and layout of a town or city and the pattern of its land uses
Site	The physical land a settlement is built on
Situation	Where a settlement sits in relation to surrounding places, routes and resources
Settlement hierarchy	A ranking of settlements by size and number of services
Threshold	The minimum number of people needed to support a service
Range	The maximum distance people will travel to use a service
Sphere of influence	The area a settlement serves
Conurbation	Towns and cities that have grown into one built-up area
Megacity	A city of 10 million people or more
Primate city	A city far larger than the next largest in the country
Urbanisation	A rise in the proportion of people living in urban areas
Urban growth	A rise in the number of people living in urban areas
Counter-urbanisation	Movement from cities to smaller towns and rural areas
Informal settlement	Housing built without legal title or planning permission
Brownfield site	Land used before, often derelict, available for redevelopment
Sustainable city	A city that meets present needs without harming future residents’ ability to meet theirs

Site factors to name

• Water supply (river, spring, well)
• Dry point (above floods) or wet point (in a dry region)
• Defence (hill, meander loop)
• Bridging point
• Flat, fertile land
• Shelter, and building materials nearby

Rule of thumb: site explains the start, situation explains the growth.

The hierarchy in one line

Isolated dwelling → hamlet → village → town → city → conurbation → megacity.

Going up the hierarchy: fewer settlements, further apart, bigger populations, more high-order services, larger spheres of influence. The idea comes from Christaller’s central place theory (1933).

Formulas and calculations

What	How
Percentage urban	urban population ÷ total population × 100
Percentage-point change	later % − earlier %
Percentage increase	(new − old) ÷ old × 100
Rank-size prediction	Pₙ = P₁ ÷ n
Primacy index	P₁ ÷ P₂ (the rule predicts 2)
Share of a land use on a transect	plots of that use ÷ total plots × 100

Method in steps: judging primacy

1. Divide the largest city’s population by its rank-number for each city (P₁ ÷ n).
2. Compare predicted with actual values.
3. Find P₁ ÷ P₂. Well above 2 suggests a primate city.
4. Explain it: capital city role, port, investment, migration.

Urban land-use models at a glance

Model	Year, city	Main idea	Main weakness
Burgess concentric zone	1925, Chicago	Rings: CBD, zone in transition, working-class homes, residential zone, commuter zone	Ignores transport routes and physical features
Hoyt sector	1939, US cities	Wedges along transport routes; high-status housing away from industry	Still assumes one centre
Harris and Ullman multiple nuclei	1945	Several centres grow around different activities	Hard to generalise; each city differs
Griffin and Ford	1980, Latin America	CBD and commercial spine with elite sector; squatter settlements at the edge; disamenity sector	Based on one region; cities change fast

Bid rent underlies the Burgess rings: the most accessible land is the most expensive, so shops and offices outbid housing at the centre.

Worked reminders

Urbanisation. A fictional country has 5.5 million urban people out of 11.0 million. 5.5 ÷ 11.0 × 100 = 50% urban.

Rank-size. The largest city has 2.0 million people. The rule predicts the 4th city has 2.0 ÷ 4 = 0.5 million.

Points versus percent. Urban share rises from 32% to 47%: that is 15 percentage points. Urban population rises from 3.0 to 4.5 million: that is a 50% increase.

Causes of urbanisation

• Push factors (rural): few jobs, low or unreliable farm incomes, drought, conflict, poor schools and clinics, mechanised farming needing fewer workers.
• Pull factors (urban): jobs in factories and services, higher wages, schools, hospitals, family already in the city, the hope of a better life.
• Natural increase: migrants are often young adults, so birth rates in cities can be high.

Migration in general (types, Lee’s model, impacts) is covered in the demographics and human movements study guide; here the focus is on what migration does to cities.

Responses to informal settlements

Response	For	Against
Clearance and relocation	Frees land; new housing may be safer	Breaks community ties; moves people away from work
Upgrading in place (e.g. Favela-Bairro, Rio, 1990s)	Keeps homes and jobs; adds water, drains, paving	Costly; land title can be slow
Self-help (e.g. Orangi Pilot Project, Karachi, 1980)	Low cost; residents own and maintain it	Needs organisation and technical support
Site-and-service	Cheap for government; families build at their pace	Plots are often at the city edge

Sustainable city checklist

Use three headings in any judgement:

• Environmental: public transport, cycling, green space, recycling, energy-efficient buildings, brownfield use.
• Economic: jobs, affordable transport, costs that the city can maintain.
• Social: affordable housing, access for the poorest, safety, a say for residents.

Curitiba (Brazil) is the standard case: a bus rapid transit system from the 1970s, parks on flood-prone land and a scheme swapping recyclable waste for food. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 11 (2015) covers sustainable cities and communities.

Must-know distinctions

• Site vs situation – the land itself vs its setting.
• Urbanisation vs urban growth – proportion vs number.
• Percentage points vs percent – difference in shares vs relative change.
• Threshold vs range – people needed vs distance travelled.
• Burgess vs Griffin and Ford – the rich at the edge vs the rich near the centre.
• Brownfield vs greenfield – used before vs never built on.

Linking to the criteria and concepts

The brief names four criteria, each with eight achievement levels (1–8) in four bands: A Knowing and understanding, B Investigating, C Communicating and D Thinking critically. This topic suits all four. Definitions and models feed A. A land-use transect or a service survey feeds B. A briefing for a city council feeds C. A judgement on whether a city is sustainable, or on how to respond to informal settlements, feeds D. The brief’s related-concept examples include causality (why cities grow), globalization (investment drawing migrants to primate cities) and sustainability. For how each criterion is judged, see criteria in practice revision notes.

Quick self-test

1. Define site.
2. A town grew at the meeting point of three valleys. Is this a site or a situation factor?
3. What is the threshold of a service?
4. Put in order, smallest first: city, hamlet, conurbation, village, town.
5. A country has 5.5 million urban people out of 11.0 million. What percentage is urban?
6. The largest city has 2.0 million people. What does the rank-size rule predict for the 4th city?
7. The largest city has 2.0 million and the second 0.4 million. Find the primacy index.
8. The urban share rises from 32% to 47%. State the change correctly.
9. The urban population rises from 3.0 to 4.5 million. Find the percentage increase.
10. Which model places the poorest housing at the edge of the city?
11. Name the zone between the CBD and the working-class homes in the Burgess model.
12. Give one social feature of a sustainable city.

Answers

1. The physical land a settlement is built on.
2. Situation.
3. The minimum number of people needed to keep it running.
4. Hamlet, village, town, city, conurbation.
5. 5.5 ÷ 11.0 × 100 = 50%.
6. 2.0 ÷ 4 = 0.5 million.
7. 2.0 ÷ 0.4 = 5.0 – well above 2, so a primate city.
8. A rise of 15 percentage points (not 15%).
9. (4.5 − 3.0) ÷ 3.0 × 100 = 50%.
10. Griffin and Ford (peripheral squatter settlements).
11. The zone in transition.
12. Any one: affordable housing; services the poorest can reach; residents involved in decisions; safe streets.

Where marks are usually lost

• Giving a site factor when the question asks about situation.
• Defining urbanisation as “cities getting bigger” – it is a change in proportion.
• Writing a percentage increase when the data show a percentage-point change.
• Listing the Burgess zones without explaining why they form (bid rent, accessibility).
• Stating a model’s weakness in general (“it is old”) rather than a specific one (“it ignores transport routes”).
• Describing informal settlements only as problems.
• Naming a case study with no detail about what was done.
• A sustainable-city judgement that gives only environmental evidence.
• Reaching a conclusion in a Criterion D answer without weighing the other side.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014. The brief lists settlement and urban morphology among the on-screen examination topics, and names the criteria and related concepts used here.