SUBJECT- GEOGRAPHY

CLASS- VII
HUMAN ENVIRONMENT-
SETTLEMENT, TRANSPORT AND
COMMUNICATION
TABLE OF CONTENT
SETTLEMENTS

PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS

THE RURAL AND THE URBAN SETTLEMENTS

TRANSPORT

THE FOUR MAJOR MEANS OF TRANSPORT - ROADWAYS, RAILWAYS,

WATERWAYS AND AIRWAYS.

COMMUNICATION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
THE STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO –
UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF SETTLEMENTS
CLASSIFY THE SETTLEMENTS
DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS
KNOW ABOUT THE RURAL AND THE URBAN SETTLEMENTS
UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT
ANALYSE MERITS AND DEMERITS OF ROADWAYS, RAILWAYS, WATERWAYS
AND AIRWAYS.
EXPLORE THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIELD OF COMMUNICATION
 Competencies Achieved

Critical Extended Logical

learning knowledge thinking

Imagination/ Decision
visualisation making
Do you think human beings have modified
the environment? Justify your answer.

Early human beings depended

entirely on nature for food,
clothing and shelter; but with
time they learnt new skills to
grow food, build homes and
develop better means of
transport and communication.
In this way they modified the
environment where they lived.
Settlements

When they
started to grow
Settlements are Early human
crops it became
places where beings lived on
necessary to
people build trees and in
have a
their homes. caves.
permanent
home.
 SETTLEMENTS ARE OF TWO TYPES

Permanent Settlements Temporary Settlements.

• Settlements which are • Settlements which are
occupied for a long time are occupied for a short time are
called permanent called temporary
settlements. settlements.
• In these settlements, people • In these settlements, people
build homes to live in. live in deep forests, hot
• They practice farming, and cold deserts and
manufacturing, trading etc. mountains.
• They practice hunting,
gathering, shifting cultivation
and transhumance.
 SETTLEMENTS CAN ALSO BE CLASSIFIED ON BASIS OF
RESIDENCE AND MAIN OCCUPATION INTO TWO DIFFERENT
TYPES.

• The villages are rural settlement where people are

engaged in activities like agriculture, fishing,
Rural forestry, crafts work and trading etc.
Settlements

• The towns are small and the cities are larger urban
settlements. In urban areas the people are
Urban engaged in manufacturing, trading, and
Settlements services. Name some of the villages, towns and
cities of your state.
 RURAL SETTLEMENTS CAN BE OF TWO TYPES.

Compact Scattered
settlements A compact settlements In a scattered
settlement is a settlement dwellings
closely built area of are spaced over an
dwellings, wherever extensive area. This
flat land is available type of settlement is
mostly found in hilly
tracts, thick forests,
and regions of
extreme climate.
IN RURAL AREAS PEOPLE BUILD HOUSES TO SUIT
THEIR ENVIRONMENT.
In regions of heavy rainfall, they have slanting roofs.

Places where water accumulates in the rainy season the

houses are constructed on a raised platform or stilts.

Thick mud walled houses with thatched roofs are very

common in areas of hot climate. Local materials like
stones, mud, clay, straw etc are used to construct houses.
 TRANSPORT

Transport is the means by which people and goods move.

In the early days it took a great deal of time, to travel long distances.

People had to walk and used animals to carry their goods. Invention
of the wheel made transport easier.

With the passage of time different means of transport developed but

even today people use animals for transport
In our country donkeys, mules, bullocks and camels are common.

In the Andes Mountains of South America, llamas are used, as are yaks in
Tibet.

The early traders from other countries used to take several months to
reach India.

They took either the sea route or the land route. Aeroplanes have made
travel faster.

Now it takes only 6-8 hours to travel from India to Europe. Modern means
of transport thus saves time and energy.
THERE ARE FOUR MAJOR MEANS OF TRANSPORT

Roadways Railways

Waterways Airways
 ROADWAYS
The most commonly used means
of transport especially for short
distances are roads.

The plains have a dense network

of roads.

Roads have also been build in

terrains like deserts, forests and
even high mountains.
TWO TYPES OF ROADS

Metalled Unmetalled
(pucca) (kutcha)
Manali-Leh highway in
Roads built
the Himlayan
Mountains is one of underground are Flyovers are built over
the highest roadways called subways/under raised structures.
in the world. paths.
 The railways carry heavy
RAILWAYS goods and people over
long distances quickly and
cheaply.

The invention of the steam

engine and the Industrial
Revolution helped in
speedy development of
rail transport.

Diesel and electric engines

have largely replaced the
steam engines.

In places super fast trains

have been introduced to
make the journey faster.
 LET US KNOW MORE ABOUT
RAILWAYS
The railway network is well developed over the plain
areas.

Advanced technological skills have enabled laying of

railway lines in difficult mountain terrains also.

But these are much fewer in number. Indian railway

network is well developed. It is the largest in Asia.
 WATERWAYS
WATERWAYS ARE THE CHEAPEST FOR CARRYING HEAVY
AND BULKY GOODS OVER LONG DISTANCES.

They are mainly of two

types

Inland waterways Sea routes

• Inland waterways is • Sea routes the

used to goods are usually
transport transferred from one
goods from one place land mass to another
to another inside a via the oceans
mass of land and the seas
Navigable rivers and lakes are used as inland waterways.
Some of the important inland waterways are the Ganga-Brahmaputra
river system, the Great Lakes in North America and the river Nile in
Africa.
Sea routes and oceanic routes are mostly used for transporting
merchandise and goods from one country to another.

These routes are connected with the ports.

Some of the important ports of the world are Singapore and Mumbai in
Asia, New York, Los Angeles in North America, Rio de Janerio in South
America, Durban and Cape Town in Africa, Sydney in Australia, London
and Rotterdam in Europe.
 AIRWAYS

This is the fastest

way of transport
developed in the
early twentieth
century.

Air traffic is
It is also the
adversely
most expensive
affected by bad
due to high cost
weather like fog
of fuels.
and storms.
 IMPORTANCE OF AIRWAYS
It is the only mode of transport to reach the most remote and
distant areas especially where there are no roads and railways.

Helicopters are extremely useful in most inaccessible areas and

in time of calamities for rescuing people and distributing food,
water, clothes and medicines .

IMPORTANT AIRPORTS
Some of the important airports are Delhi, Mumbai, New York,
London, Paris, Frankfurt and Cairo
MAJOR SEA PORTS AND AIRPORTS
 COMMUNICATION

With the
Communication development of
is the process of technology
conveying humans have
messages to devised new and
others. fast modes of
communication.

The
Different modes advancement in
of the field of
communication communication
are used to has brought
provide about an
information, to information
educate as well revolution in the
as to entertain. world.
WHAT DOES MASS MEDIA MEAN?

Mass media means technology that is

intended to reach a mass audience.

It is the primary means

of communication used to reach the vast
majority of the general public.

Through newspapers, radio and

television we can communicate with a
large number of people. They are
therefore called mass media.
The satellites have made communication even faster. Satellites have helped in oil
exploration, survey of forest, underground water, mineral wealth, weather forecast
and disaster warning.

Now we can send electronic mails or e-mails through Internet.

Wireless telephonic communications through cellular phones have become very

popular today.

Internet not only provides us with worldwide information and interaction but has
also made our lives more comfortable.

Now we can reserve tickets for railways, airways and even cinemas and hotels sitting
at home. With this kind

of inter connectivity of people, services and institutions – across the world, we are a
large global society.
 Answer the following questions.

1. What are the four means of transport?

2. What do you understand by the term ‘settlement’?

3. Which are the activities practised by the rural people?

4. Mention any two merits of railways.

5. What do you understand by communication?

6. What is mass media?