Map Reading and Interpretation

Lessons

Senior 3 · Geography

Map Reading and Interpretation

5 lessons

Lesson 3 of 5

Human Features on a Map

25 min

Let's begin

Every black square on Map A is a building someone put up, and every red or brown line is a route someone cleared. None of them is placed by chance. In this lesson you read the human features of Map A: where people live, how they move, what services they use and how they earn a living. Examiners ask you to identify these features, give grid references for them and describe their patterns, so the answers here are set out the way an examiner wants them.

Definition

Human (cultural) features: things on a map made or changed by people, such as buildings, roads, bridges, plantations, quarries and masts. Natural features such as hills, rivers and swamps are physical features.

Settlement: a place where people live, from a single homestead to a city.

The map

Map A. Gasave: an illustrative topographic extract (invented area). Drawn by Ganzaa.

Human features on Map A

Sort the features into groups before you answer any question. That way you never list a road when the question asks for a service.

Group	Features on Map A	Where (GR or grid square)
Settlement	Gasave trading centre; huts along the tarmac road; scattered huts	Gasave: square 2341; the others below
Transport	Tarmac road (all-weather); murram road (earth road, muddy in the rains); footpaths; bridge; footbridge	Road bridge over R. Mpenge in square 2341; footbridge over R. Kamiro in square 2240
Communication	Mast	GR 212434
Social services	School (S), church (†), health centre, water point	GR 229418, 234418, 234416, 235417
Economic	Market (M), tea estate, tea factory, quarry	GR 231416; squares 2442, 2542, 2443, 2543; GR 243415; GR 206423
Land use by the state	Forest reserve	Upper slopes of Kibonde Hill, mainly squares 2043 and 2143

Definition

Settlement pattern: the way buildings are arranged on the ground, as seen from above.

Nucleated (clustered): buildings grouped closely together, often where roads meet.
Linear: buildings in a line along a road, river, railway or valley.
Dispersed (scattered): buildings spread out with farmland between them.

Figure 5. How the three settlement patterns look on a map. Drawn by Ganzaa.

Settlement patterns on Map A

Nucleated at Gasave (square 2341), where the tarmac road, the murram road and footpaths meet, beside R. Mpenge.
Linear along the tarmac road in squares 2041, 2141 and 2241.
Dispersed on the spur (squares 2241 and 2242), on the lower slopes of Nyarutovu Hill (squares 2442, 2541 and 2542) and south of R. Kamiro (squares 2040 to 2540).
No settlement in the forest reserve on Kibonde, in the swamp, and on the tea estate.

In S2 you studied Rwanda's imidugudu, planned grouped settlements. On a survey map an umudugudu shows as a nucleated block of buildings, often laid out in straight rows.

Reading economic activities from the map

A map does not print the words "farming" or "trade". You infer an activity from a symbol, then give the symbol as your evidence.

Activity	Evidence on Map A	Where
Plantation agriculture (tea growing)	Tea estate symbol	Squares 2442, 2542, 2443, 2543
Manufacturing (tea processing)	Tea factory	GR 243415
Trade	Market at Gasave	GR 231416
Quarrying (stone for building and roads)	Quarry symbol	GR 206423
Transport services	Tarmac and murram roads meeting at Gasave	Square 2341
Forest conservation	Forest reserve	Squares 2043 and 2143

Warning

Claim only what the map shows. The scattered huts suggest that people farm around their homes, but Map A has no symbol for food crops, so say "probably subsistence farming, shown by dispersed huts" and not "maize growing". There is no evidence at all of fishing or tourism on Map A: do not list them. Always pair each activity with its evidence and a grid reference.

i-study Publishing: an IGCSE geography lesson on rural settlement patterns (linear, nucleated and dispersed) and the reasons for each. Compare the examples with the huts on Map A.

Worked example

Worked example 1: services. Using evidence from Map A, name three social services found at Gasave and give a six-figure grid reference for each.

Scan the key for service symbols: S, †, the red cross, the blue dot.
Find each one at Gasave and read its grid reference, eastings first.

Answer (any three): education, school at GR 229418; religion, church at GR 234418; health, health centre at GR 234416; water supply, water point at GR 235417.

Worked example

Worked example 2: bearing and distance (revision from S2). Find the bearing and the straight-line distance of the trig point (GR 214435) from the market (GR 231416).

From the market, the trig point is 1.7 km west and 1.9 km north.
Distance: $\sqrt{1.7^2 + 1.9^2} = \sqrt{6.5} \approx 2.55\,\text{km}$ .
The angle west of north is $\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1.7}{1.9}\right) \approx 41.8^\circ$ , so the bearing is $360^\circ - 41.8^\circ \approx 318^\circ$ .

Answer: about 318°, 2.5 km. On paper you would measure both with a protractor and the scale bar.

Tip

A three-part answer. For "identify" questions write: feature + evidence (symbol) + grid reference. "Quarrying: quarry symbol at GR 206423" earns the full mark; "quarrying" alone may not.

Practice

Use Map A.

Name the settlement pattern along the tarmac road in grid squares 2041 to 2241.
Give the six-figure grid reference of the tea factory.
Name the two kinds of road on Map A. Which one would be harder to use in the rainy season, and why?
Identify three economic activities carried out in the area. For each, give the map evidence and a grid reference.
Give two reasons, from the map, why there are no buildings in grid squares 2043 and 2143.
Describe two functions of Gasave.
Find the bearing and the straight-line distance of the tea factory (GR 243415) from the market (GR 231416).
"The people of this area depend only on tea." Use evidence from Map A to argue against this statement.

Show answersHide answers

Linear settlement.
GR 243415.
A tarmac road and a murram road. The murram road: it is an earth road, so rain turns it to mud and lorries can get stuck.
Any three, e.g. tea growing (tea estate, square 2442); tea processing (tea factory, GR 243415); trade (market, GR 231416); quarrying (quarry, GR 206423).
It is a forest reserve, where building is not allowed; and the slopes there are steep (contours close together) and high (above 1800 m).
Any two: a trading (commercial) centre, shown by the market; a service centre, shown by the school, church and health centre; a transport centre, where the tarmac road and the murram road meet.
From the market the factory is 1.2 km east and 0.1 km south. Distance $= \sqrt{1.2^2 + 0.1^2} \approx 1.2\,\text{km}$ ; bearing $= 90^\circ + \tan^{-1}\left(\frac{0.1}{1.2}\right) \approx 95^\circ$ , i.e. 095°.
The map also shows trade (market at GR 231416), quarrying (GR 206423), services that employ people (school, health centre), transport along the tarmac road, and dispersed huts that suggest subsistence farming. So tea is important, but it is not the only source of income.

Sources and credits

Nucleated village, Linear settlement and Dispersed settlement: Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted by Ganzaa.
Photo: Road between Kigali and Butare, Dave Proffer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Video: IGCSE Settlement Patterns, i-study Publishing, embedded from YouTube.

Map A, Figure 5, the worked examples and the practice exercises are written by Ganzaa. Map A shows an invented area.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1The map

2Human features on Map A

3Settlement patterns on Map A

4Reading economic activities from the map

The map

Human features on Map A

Settlement patterns on Map A

Reading economic activities from the map