A3.1 Where people live, and why
People cluster: settlement follows linear, scattered, and clustered patterns, and the global trend runs from countryside to city. Growth carries costs — sprawl over farmland, pollution, habitat loss — and communities respond with transit, recycling, land-use planning, and protection of green space. Choropleth maps make the patterns visible.
Example
Explain why most Canadians live within a narrow band near the southern border.
- The south has the mildest climate, the best farmland and the earliest transport links, so settlement concentrated there.
Example
Explain why the far north is sparsely settled.
- The north has long winters, thin soils and few roads, so settlement is sparse and costly to serve.
- Population distribution follows climate, soil, water and access.
A3.2 Site and situation
Example
Describe a settlement's site, using a river-mouth port.
- Site is the physical ground a settlement stands on — the flat land at the river mouth, its harbour, its fresh water.
Example
Describe the same port's situation, and say what each of the two does.
- Situation is the settlement's location relative to other places — at the meeting of a river route and a sea route, between inland farms and overseas markets.
- A strong site starts a town; a strong situation grows it.
A3.3 Settlement patterns
Example
Name the pattern and its cause: farms strung along a river road.
- Linear: settlement follows a line — a river, a road, a rail line — because access runs along it.
Example
Name the pattern and its cause: a compact town around a mine, homesteads spread evenly across the Prairies.
- Clustered: settlement gathers tightly around one resource or service.
- Scattered: settlement spreads out because each unit needs a large area of land — a farm, a ranch.
A3.4 Land use in a city
Example
Classify a subdivision, a downtown shopping street, a rail yard, a park, a school and a highway by land use.
- Residential: the subdivision. Commercial: the shopping street. Industrial: the rail yard.
- Recreational: the park. Institutional: the school. Transportation: the highway.
Example
Explain why those uses sit where they do.
- Industry sits by rail and water for freight; commerce sits where people pass; homes sit away from noise and toward schools and parks.
A3.5 Transportation and settlement
Example
Explain how the railway shaped where a city's people live.
- Railway: towns grew at stations, spaced along the line — a linear pattern with clusters.
Example
Explain how the highway and the subway each shaped where a city's people live.
- Highway: suburbs spread along and between exits, because a car reaches land the train never served.
- Subway: towers cluster around stations, because thousands can live where a short walk reaches a fast line.
A3.6 Urbanization
Example
Explain what urbanization is, why it happens, and one effect on the countryside it leaves.
- Urbanization is the growing share of a population living in cities and towns rather than the countryside.
- People move for jobs, schools, hospitals and services concentrated where many others already are.
- The countryside left behind loses young workers, so schools close and farms consolidate.
A3.7 Population density and distribution
Example
Distinguish density from distribution — what does each one measure?
- Density is how many people live in each unit of land; distribution is where they are spread across it.
Example
Read the figure: which region has the most people for each unit of land?
- The figure shades each region by its density, and the key says which tone stands for which range; the darkest region is the densest.
Example
Explain how a large country can have a low density.
- A large country can have a low density and still have its people spread very unequally across it, and Canada does.