Settlement Definitions

• Sphere of influence – This is the area served by the settlement. Its size will depend on the type and the number of services offered by the settlement and the transport links to it.
• Threshold Population – The minimum number of potential customers needed in order for a shop to make profit.
• Low order services – Services with a small threshold population such as a local shop or primary school are called low order services. They are large in number.
• High Order Services – Services with a large threshold population, such as furniture stores or a university, are high order services. There are a smaller number of these.
• Convenience Shops – A shop a person might visit every day. For example to buy bread or milk.
• Comparison Shops – A shop where people may want to shop around before buying things. These are things that are bought less frequently by people such as fridges and TVs.
• Site: It refers to the actual land that a settlement is built upon.
• Settlement: It refers to its location in relation to surrounding features.
• Nucleated: When the settlement is tightly packed together and heavily built up.
• Linear: When the settlement is all in a row usually because of a road.
• Dispersed: When the settlement is spread out with a lot more space usually for farming. 
• Urban Sprawl – The spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs, leading to changes in the surrounding rural area. Where urban and rural land used become mixed it is known as the urban fringe.