Human Environment: Settlement, Transport and Communication

Human Environment: Settlement, Transport and Communication – 7th Class Geography Chapter 07

Question: How did early human beings depend entirely on nature?

Answer: Early human beings depended entirely on nature for food, clothing and shelter.

Question: What new skills did the human beings learn in course of time?

Answer: In course of time human beings learnt new skills, like:

1. to grow food, use fire, use wheel
2. to build homes, and
3. to develop better means of transport and communication

In this way human beings modified the environment where they lived.

Question: What are settlements? How (when / why) did human beings start to have permanent settlements?

Answer:

1. Settlements are places where people build their homes and live there.
2. Early human beings lived on trees and in caves.
3. When they started to grow crops it became necessary to have a permanent home.

Human Environment – Question: How have the settlements changed over a period of time?

Answer: Settlements are places where people build homes and live.

They have changed over a period of time due to many other changes:

1. Early man lived in caves and under trees and with the beginning of agriculture more permanent settlements were developed.
2. The settlements grew near the river valleys due to availability of water and fertile soil.
3. With the growth of trade and industries these settlements became larger leading to development of civilization.
4. With the growth in technology these settlements further grew.

Question: Do you recall the names of civilizations that grew along the banks of rivers Indus, Tigris, Nile and Hwang-Ho?

Answer:

1. Indus – Indus valley civilization
2. Tigris – Mesopotamia civilization
3. Nile – Egyptian civilization
4. Hwang-Ho – Chinese civilization

Human Environment – Question: What is a site? Which factors help to select a site for settlement?

Answer: The place where a building or a settlement is developed is called a site. The factors for selecting a site for settlement are:

1. Favorable climate
2. Availability of water, electricity
3. Land for cultivation and construction
4. Fertile soil
5. Availability of other resources

Question: What are the two types of settlements on the basis of period for which they are occupied? Give some features of temporary settlements.

Answer: Settlements are of two types on the basis of period of their occupation. They are:

1. Permanent
2. Temporary

Features of Temporary Settlements:

Settlements which are occupied for a short time are called temporary settlements.

1. The people who live in deep forests, hot and cold deserts, and mountains often reside in temporary settlements.
2. They practice hunting, gathering, shifting cultivation and transhumance.

Question: Explain major features of permanent settlements.

Answer: Features of Permanent Settlements:

1. More and more settlements today are permanent settlements.
2. In these settlements, people build homes to live in permanently.
3. These settlements are generally found in the plains, on the uplands or near the water bodies.
4. People have agriculture and industries as their major occupations.
5. People also have engaged themselves in tertiary and quaternary activities.
6. Houses in these settlements are built of bricks, concrete, cement and steel.
7. The houses are also generally multistory.

Question: Define the term transhumance.

Answer: Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people specially nomads, who shift along with their herd in search of a place according to change in climate.

Question: Why was Gurpreet late for Mary’s birthday party?

Answer: Gurpreet came late that too coughing and wheezing due to heavy traffic and related pollution.

Question: What is the reason behind increased urban population?

Answer: People come looking for jobs, better education and medical facilities.

Question: How does rise in population affect the city?

Answer: Rise in population in cities due to availability of facilities is creating problems also:

1. This leads to increase in number of vehicles and therefore traffic jams.
2. Increase in slum dwelling and squatter settlements and unhygienic conditions.
3. Shortage of water, power and other resources.
4. Pollution because of vehicles and excess of garbage.

Question: What is situation of villages in comparison with cities?

Answer: Villages do not have big cinema houses or well equipped schools and hospitals. But, they have open spaces, fresh air to breathe.

Question: What are different types of settlements?

Answer: Settlements are of the following types:

1. Rural settlements
2. Urban settlements
3. The villages are Rural Settlements
4. In these settlements people are engaged in agriculture, fishing, forestry, crafts work and trading etc

Rural settlements are of two types:

Compact and Scattered

1. A Compact settlement is a closely built area of dwellings. They are built on flat land.
2. In a scattered settlement dwellings are spaced over an extensive area. These settlements are mostly found in hilly tracts, thick forests, and regions of extreme climate.
3. In rural areas, people build houses to suit their environment.
4. In regions of heavy rainfall, they have slanting roofs.
5. In the places where water accumulates in the rainy season, the houses are constructed on a raised platform or stilts.
6. Thick mud walled houses with thatched roots are very common in areas of hot climate.
7. Local materials like stones, mud, clay, straw etc. are used to construct houses.
8. The towns are small urban settlements and the cities are larger urban settlements.

Question: What is transport? Give a brief history of transport development.

Answer:

1. Transport is the means by which people and goods move.
2. In the early days it took a great deal of time to travel long distances.
3. People had to walk and used animals to carry their goods.
4. 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.

1. In our country, donkeys, mules, bullocks and camels are common.
2. In the Andes Mountains of South America, llamas are used.
3. Yaks are used in Tibet.
4. The early traders from other countries used to take several months to reach India.
5. They took either the sea route or the land route.
6. Aeroplanes have made travel faster.
7. Now it takes only 6-8 hours to travel from India to Europe.
8. Modern means of transport thus saves time and energy.

Question: Name the means of transport.

Answer: Four Means of Transport:

1. Roadways
2. Railways
3. Waterways
4. Airways

Question: Describe roadways as a means of transport.

Answer: Roadways as a Means of Transport:

1. The most commonly used means of transport, especially for short distances, are roads.
2. They are of two types: Metalled (Pucca) and Unmetalled (Kuchcha)
3. The plains have a dense network of roads.
4. Roads have also been built in deserts, forests and even high mountains.
5. Manali-Leh highway in the Himalayan-mountains is one of the highest roadways in the world.
6. Roads built underground are called subways / under passes or paths.
7. Flyovers, are built over reused structures.

Question: Can you tell why there are more roads in the plains than in the hills?

Answer: Yes, because of the following reasons:

1. Less costly
2. Less time consuming
3. Less needs for building bridges and culverts
4. Dense population requires more road transport
5. Agriculture and industries need roads urgently
6. Movements of goods and traffic is the need of the plains.

Question: What are expressways? Give example.

Answer: 6-8 lane highways for fast moving traffic are called expressways e.g. Noida expressway.

Question: Account for Railways as a means of land transport.

Answer: Railways as a means of land transport:

1. The railways carry heavy goods and people over long distanced quickly and cheaply.
2. The invention of steam engine and the Industrial Revolution helped in speedy development of rail transport.
3. Diesel and electric engines have largely replaced the steam engines.
4. In several places super-fast trains have been introduced to make the journey faster.
5. Railway network is well-developed in the plains.
6. Advanced technological skills have enabled laying of railway lines in difficult mountain terrains also. But they are much fewer in number.
7. Indian railway network is well-developed with improvement on stations, internet booking information etc.
8. It is the largest in Asia.

Question: Describe inland waterways as a means of transport.

Answer: Inland Waterways:

In early days waterways were used for transportation.

1. Waterways are the cheapest for carrying heavy and bulky goods over long distances.
2. They are mainly of two types: Inland waterways and Sea routes.
3. Navigable rivers and lakes are used as inland waterways.

Some of the important inland waterways are:

1. Ganga-Brahmaputra river system.
2. Great Lakes in North America.
3. River Nile in Africa.

Human Environment – Question: Write main features of Sea Routes.

Answer: Major features of Sea Routes:

Sea and oceanic routes are mostly used for transporting merchandise and goods from one country to another.

1. The terminal points are on these ports.
2. Some of the important ports of the world are:
3. Singapore and Mumbai in Asia.
4. New York, Los Angeles in North America.
5. Rio-de-Janerio in South America.
6. Durban and Cape Town in Africa.
7. Sydney in Australia.
8. London and Rotterdam in Europe.

Name of some more Ports of the World are:

1. New Orleans; Philadelphia, Boston, Miami
2. Hawana, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima.
3. Kolkata, Colombo.
4. Manila, Shanghai.
5. Perth, Darwin.

Human Environment – Question: Give an account of Airways as a means of transport.

Answer: Airways as a means of transport:

1. Air transport is the fastest means of transport.
2. It was developed in the early twentieth century.
3. It is also the most expensive due to high cost of fuels.
4. Air traffic is adversely affected by bad weather like fog and storms.
5. It is the only mode of transport to reach the most remote and distant areas especially where there are no roads and railways.
6. Helicopters are extremely useful in most inaccessible areas.
7. In times of calamities they are extensively used for rescuing people and distributing relief supplies like food, water, clothes and medicines.
8. Some of the important airports of the world are Delhi, Mumbai, New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore and Hongkong.

Names of a few more airports are:

1. Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Amritsar, Ahmedabad.
2. Tokyo, Osaka.
3. Singapore, Jakarta, Kualalumpur, Porth, Sydney, Yangoon, Bangkok.
4. Hong Kong, Beijing
5. Colombo

Human Environment – Question: Write a note on Communication.

Answer: Communication:

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

Different modes of communication are used:

1. to provide information
2. to educate
3. to entertain

Through Newspapers, Radio, and Television we communicate with a large number of people. These are therefore called mass media.

Satellites have made communication very fast.

• Satellites have helped in
• Oil exploration
• Survey of forest
• Underground water
• Mineral wealth
• Weather forecast and
• Disaster warning.
• Electronic mails or e-mails through Internet have become popular these days.
• Wireless telephonic communications through cellular phones have also become very popular today.
• Internet not only provides us with worldwide information and interaction but also makes our lives more comfortable.
• Now we reserve tickets for railways, airways and even cinemas and hotels sitting at home.
• With this kind of inter-connectivity—people to people, people to services and institutions—across the world, we
  are becoming a large global society.

Question: Fill in the blanks with appropriate words:

1. People in deserts or deep forests live in ………………………. settlements.
2. In regions of heavy rainfall houses have …………………… roofs.
3. …………….are built over raised structures.
4. The Trans Siberian railways connect …………………….. to ………………..
5. The place where building or a settlement develops is called …………………

Answer:

1. temporary
2. slanting
3. Flyovers
4. St. Petersburg, Vladivastok
5. site