Human Environment Settlement Transport - Revision Notes
CBSE Class 07 Social Science
Revision Notes
Chapter – 7 Geography
Human Environment Settlement, Transport and Communication
• Human beings are dependent on their environment.
• To grow food, build homes and develop better means of transport and communication, human beings have modified the environment.
• Settlements:
(i) Settlements are places where people build their homes.
(ii) Earlier, human beings lived on trees and caves and when crops were grown by them, the settlements grew near the river valleys as water was easily available and land was fertile.
(iii) Settlements can be permanent or temporary.
(iv) Settlements which are occupied for a short time are called temporary settlements. People living in hot and cold deserts and mountains often dwell in temporary settlements. They practice hunting, gathering, shifting cultivation, and transhumance.
(v) In permanent settlements, people build homes to live in.
(vi) Settlements can be rural or urban.
- Rural settlements can be compact or scattered.
- A compact settlement is closely built area of settlement near flat land.
- In a scattered settlement, dwellings are spaced over an extensive area. This type of settlement is usually found in hilly tracts and thick forests.
- People in rural areas practice agriculture. In urban area, people are mostly engaged in services.
- Thick mud houses with thatched roofs are common in hot climate. Local materials like sand, stone, mud, and clay are used to construct houses.
• Transport:
(i) Transport is the means by which people and goods move.
(ii) With the invention of wheel, transport, became easier.
(iii) Earlier donkeys, mules, bullocks and camels were used for transportation.
(iv) Earlier traders took land route or sea route for transportation. Now it takes only 6-8 hours to travel from India to Europe.
(v) The four major means of transport are roadways, railways, waterways and airways.
• Roadways:
(i) The most commonly used means of transport especially for short distances, are roads. They can be metalled or unmetalled.
(ii) Manali-Leh highway in the Himalayan mountains is one of the highest roadways in the world.
(iii) Roads built underground are called subways/under-paths.
(iv) Flyovers are built over raised structures.
• Railways:
(i) The railways carry heavy goods and people over long distances quickly and economically.
(ii) The invention of steam engine and industrial revolution helped in speedy development of rail transport.
(iii) Diesel and electric engines have largely replaced the steam engines.
(iv) Now super fast trains have been introduced to make travelling faster.
(v) Indian railways network is the largest in Asia.
• Waterways:
(i) Waterways are the cheapest for carrying heavy and bulky goods over long distance.
(ii) There are manly two types of routes, inland waterways and sea routes.
(iii) 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.
(iv) Sea routes are connected through ports.
• Airways:
(i) It is the fastest means of transport developed in the early twentieth century.
(ii) 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 used to transport items to remote areas.
(iii) It is the most expensive mode of transport due to high cost of fuels.
(iv) Some major airports in the world are Delhi, Mumbai, New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Cairo.
• Communication:
(i) Communication is the process of conveying messages to others.
(ii) Different modes of communication are used to provide information, to educate as well as to entertain.
(iii) Through newspaper, radio and television, we can communicate with a large number of people. They are, therefore, called mass media.
(iv) Television, radio, internet, wireless telephone are main modes of communication.
(v) With the use of satellites, we can explore the earth and communicate as a global community.
