Town Sites and Its Advantages | Human Geography

In this article we will discuss about the town sites and their advantages.

Towns, like villages, must possess the basic re­quirements which make settlement possible. These are water and food supplies, shelter and building materials, and some protection against both natural hazards, such as floods, and human enemies. But this does not mean that any village can grow into a town.

This does sometimes happen, but more often than not, towns and villages were developed separately because of their different functions and the reliance of towns on certain advantageous situations. In modern times villages may develop into towns as a result of residen­tial and suburban development but in the past town and countryside were quite separate.

Many authorities suggest that the first towns grew up as trading centres at advantageous locations along ancient routeways and that they were established not by the local rural population but by the intinerant traders who used the routes. Such traders might be of a different race and speak a different language from the local people, though as towns developed local people would naturally be drawn into their activities.

In Europe the Jews played a major role in the develop­ment of medieval towns. Similar developments can be found in more recent times, for European colonists established the first towns ever known in many parts of the world. In other areas, Indian, Chinese and Arab traders helped to initiate town growth.

Because towns are so closely linked with trade, situation is usually a more vital consideration than site, but some siting factors do have important advan­tages which gather together concentrations of popu­lation. In these cases the concentration of population encourages the growth of trade, rather than the trade attracting population, and thus the siting factor may be more important than the situation.

Three main types of site have this advantage:

1. Resource Sites:

Many towns are founded on the exploitation of specific resources. The most obvious examples of resource-based towns are the mining towns and fishing ports but other towns may be based on less immediately obvious resources such as mineral waters, the presence of winter sports facili­ties or the presence in the town of religious or cultural institutions.

Some points along lines of transporta­tion, such as gaps in mountain ranges or bridging points on rivers also have advantages of site which could be interpreted as ‘transport resources’, but these are only valuable if their situation is also advantage­ous and warrants town development. They will there­fore be dealt with under Town Situations.

(a) Mineral or power resources:

The growth of towns on the sites of valuable mineral or power re­sources is often both spectacular and rapid. Large towns have grown up almost overnight in inaccessible and sometimes extremely inhospitable areas, such as deserts, polar regions, tundra areas and in the midst of forests, when minerals like gold, silver, copper or uranium have been found.

There are many examples of such towns in Canada, the U.S.A., Australia and the U.S.S.R., including Kalgoorlie, a gold-mining town in the Australian desert; Dawson City, Yellow- knife, Port Radium and Coppermine in northern Canada; and Norilsk on the Yenisey River in northern Siberia, where nickel is mined. Towns grow up, too, on sites where the more ordinary minerals such as coal, iron, asbestos, kaolin or even slate, are found, and are also associated with power resources such as oil and H.E.P.

However, mineral development does not always give rise to urban growth. Some of the earliest areas to exploit coal deposits were in northern England, and there mining was associated with village rather than town development. An even earlier source of power was water.

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when steam power had not yet been har­nessed, water was used to drive mills and these were often sited on small streams and gave rise only to small settlements. On the other hand modern exploi­tation of power resources, especially of H.E.P. may not give rise to urban development either, because such modern plants need little labour and the power that they produce is easily transported to more popu­lous areas, for use by industrial concerns. Oil, too, is often transported by tanker and pipe-line to dis­tant refining centres.

Despite these exceptions, mineral and power re­sources have caused urban growth in many parts of the world. Coal, the most important fuel in the nine­teenth and early twentieth centuries, is difficult to transport because of its weight and bulk, and thus coalfields became major urban and industrial regions.

All industries which required large coal supplies had to be set up in coal-producing areas. Iron ore, too, exerted a similar influence on industrial location. Once industries have become well-established they cannot simply change their sites when new sources of fuel are found or when old mineral resources are exhausted. Thus they often remain on coalfields today despite the fuel revolution which has replaced coal with oil and electricity.

Some coalfield towns with no other advantage than their old resource base may decline and this is a prob­lem faced in South Wales, parts of northern England, northern France, southern Belgium and parts of the Appalachian coalfield in the U.S.A. But where towns are well-situated with good transport links, access to the sea, or possess other advantages of site or situa­tion, then they are less likely to decline, and this is the case in the Ruhr of Germany, and the Midlands of England.

Some towns such as Philadelphia or Baltimore, which started life as industrial settle­ments on Fall-Line sites using water power, have also maintained their importance as a result of their fa­vourable situations. The need to import fuel and min­eral raw materials nowadays means that coastal sites with advantageous situations in respect to trade and sea routes are the basis of a new series of industrial towns.

(b) Other resources:

A site may possess some advan­tage which makes it attractive to visitors and holiday- makers. Towns based on such sites are called resorts and are of several types.

i. Hill stations:

In hot countries resorts are often built in the highlands where the coolness of the cli­mate is the major siting factor. Such towns may be visited at any time of the year or may be used season­ally in the hot season.

They were developed largely by European colonists who suffered from the heat in tropical countries and include Shimla in India, and Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Since independence these hill resorts have retained their popularity and are used for holidays by local people, as well as being visited by tourists from overseas.

ii. Watering places:

Places which possess mineral springs, hot springs and similar health-giving waters have always been visited for medicinal purposes and many resorts have grown up on such sites, including Bath in England, which was used by the Romans. Baden Baden in Germany and Aix-les-Bains in France are other examples. The distinctive names of such towns, usually incorporating spa, bath (baden in Ger­man; bain in French), wells or springs, often indicate their origin.

iii. Seaside resorts:

Seaside resorts began as water­ing places, for sea bathing was once considered to be health-giving and was undertaken as a cure rather than for pure enjoyment as it is today. Brighton and Bournemouth in southern England were some of the earliest resorts, but now the coasts of many coun­tries are ringed with seaside towns.

Some of the best known are Nice and Cannes in the south of France, and Miami, Florida. Where the majority of the popu­lation cannot afford to travel on holidays, seaside resorts are less well-developed, for though people almost everywhere love to go bathing at the coast, this only leads to urban development when hotels, shops and houses are built to cater for them. If the attractions of the coast and climate are such that for­eign tourists can be attracted then urban development may take place, as in the Bahamas and other West Indian islands.

iv. Sports facilities:

Mountain villages may grow into towns or new towns may be built if the area is suitable for winter sports, and this has led to the devel­opment of many resorts in France, Switzerland, Aus­tria and Italy, such as St. Moritz, Klosters, Davos, Cortina and Chamonix. Sapporo in Japan and Banff in Canada are other examples.

Highlands also attract tourists who wish to climb the mountains. Other sports also help to create tourism, but usually in already-established towns, e.g. golf in St. Andrews, yachting at Cowes, or motor racing at Le Mans.

v. Scenery:

Many tourists wish simply to view the scenery in an area or visit places or buildings of historical or cultural interest. Such tourism rarely gives rise to new towns but it does add new functions to long-established towns. Most European and Asiatic capitals such as Paris, Vienna, Rome, Bangkok or Singapore have tourist functions but were not, of course, originally based on touristic resources.

Religious or cultural factors:

Religious or cultural factors may also act as deter­minants of site for towns. For instance a shrine or temple, built at a certain place which has religious sig­nificance may become a centre of pilgrimage. A site may also be associated with a miracle, e.g. Lourdes, or with the life of a religious leader, e.g. Jerusalem and Mecca. Towns may develop at such sites in order to cater for pilgrims.

Similarly the choice of a particular place for an educational or cultural institution may also lead to town development, e.g. Oxford in England, or Akademgorod, the ‘science town’, in Siberia. The choice of a site as the residence of a king or national leader may also cause town development because courtiers, administrative staff and tradesmen will gather around the royal residence. Thus in some cases the presence of regal, religious or educational institu­tions may be regarded as a siting factor.

2. Defensive Sites:

One of the most important factors in siting early towns was defence. The rich traders and craftsmen of the town needed protection against the ravages of hostile armies and in times of trouble many rural people also flocked to the towns for safety. This still happens today, though conditions are very different, for refugees from the countryside in Vietnam moved into the capital at the outbreak of war to avoid the dangers of isolation.

Because defence was a major function of early towns they were nearly always surrounded by strong walls, by water-filled moats, or by other defensive works. Towns which also had defensive sites obviously had an added advantage.

Defensive sites are of two main kinds:

(a) Hilltop sites:

These protect the town by giving it a commanding position, overlooking any possible enemy. There are many examples of such acropolis sites, including Athens whence the name is derived. Edinburgh in Scotland is a classic example, the castle and the original town being sited on a crag of volcanic rock which overlooks the lowlands.

Another good example is Ibadan in Nigeria, one of the largest towns in West Africa. It was first established as a war camp on top of a ridge which gave a commanding view, but it has now spread out around the base of the ridge. Hill sites not only give a commanding view but are difficult to approach, especially if the hillsides are pre­cipitous.

(b) Island sites:

Sites surrounded by water are easy to defend because they are difficult to approach. They may be islands in swamps, e.g. the original site of Hamburg, or rivers, e.g. Paris, Montreal, or off-shore islands, e.g. New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Bombay and Venice.

Some water-protected sites may be only partly surrounded, but are easily defended be­cause the approach to the town is narrow. For exam­ple towns may be built on promontories, e.g. Gibral­tar, Cadiz, or inside the meander of a river, particularly where the river flows in a deep entrenched course, e.g. Durham in England.

3. Sheltered Sites:

Sheltered bays and inlets such as fiords, rias, estuaries, lagoons and straits be­tween the mainland and off-shore islands were often chosen as the sites of ports because they provided protection against high winds and rough seas. This was particularly important in the days of sailing ships, because on exposed coasts ships might be driven aground and wrecked.

Shelter is still an advantage as it provides a calm anchorage at which ships can be loaded or unloaded, repaired, supplied and so on. In many cases such port sites have the additional advan­tage of being easily defended in case of attack. There are many examples of such sites. Bergen is built on a deep, sheltered fiord, and Plymouth on a ria. Singa­pore’s port is sheltered by the off-shore islands of Pulau Sentosa and Pulau Brani.

Rio de Janeiro is built on a bay which affords protection on an otherwise rather inhospitable coast but has few other advantages of situation because access inland is made difficult by the Great Escarpment which lies parallel and quite close to the coast. Its growth into a major port, however, stimulated the construction of communication links and it now has relatively good access to the interior.

However good a site may be, whether it possesses an exploitable resource or has advantages for defence or shelter, a town which grows up there must also have advantages of situation if it is to prosper. Mining towns may otherwise decline or be completely abandoned if their mineral deposits are exhausted and towns on inaccessible hilltops or islands must have a good situa­tion with regard to trading routes or industrial areas if their advantages are to outweigh their disadvantages in present-day conditions.