Understanding Water Cycle, Rivers, and Settlements

🌊 The Water Cycle

Water moves in a natural cycle:

• Evaporation (from seas and rivers)
• Condensation (clouds form)
• Precipitation (rain, snow, hail)
• Runoff (water flows back to rivers, seas, or infiltrates the soil)

It is a continuous process that ensures water is always available on Earth.

🏞️ River Course

• Source: Where the river begins (usually in mountains).
• Upper Course: Fast flow, leading to V-shaped valleys, waterfalls, rapids, and gorges.
• Middle Course: River widens, meanders (curves) appear.
• Lower Course: River slows, deposits sediments, forms deltas or estuaries at the mouth.

Key River Terms:

• Tributary: Smaller river joining a bigger one.
• Confluence: Where two rivers meet.
• Mouth: Where a river reaches the sea, a lake, or another river.
• Oxbow Lake: Horseshoe-shaped lake left from a meander.
• Floodplain: Flat land around the river that floods.

🏙️ Settlements

Types of Settlements:

• Hamlet: Very small, only a few houses.
• Village: Small, has a school and some shops.
• Town: Larger, with schools, a station, and services.
• City: Largest, with universities, hospitals, offices, and shops.

Settlement Location Factors:

Water supply, natural resources, transport, and trade influence settlement locations.

Push & Pull Factors:

• Push Factors (why people leave the countryside): Lack of services, lack of jobs, isolation.
• Pull Factors (why people move to cities): More entertainment, better transport, more jobs, schools, and hospitals.

📝 River Severn Case Study

The River Severn's source is in Mid Wales, 600 meters above sea level, a wild, desolate, and largely uninhabited area. The Irish Sea is just 20 kilometers away. This area receives a lot of rainfall from the Atlantic Ocean, over 2500 mm of precipitation every year, making it one of the wettest parts of Britain.

The ground acts like a huge sponge, holding a large amount of the rain. The excess runs off, trickles become rivulets, which then form a stream. Fed by dozens of rivulets, the stream quickly grows in size and power, cutting down through the landscape to form a V-shaped valley, and it's getting bigger all the time. It's also fast-flowing, which means it has a high erosive power, the ability to carry material that's been stripped from the land.

Settlement Functions

• Market Town: Trade
• Manufacturing Town: Industry/factories
• Port Town: Harbour, transport by sea
• Commuter Town: Residential area for workers who travel to another place
• Tourism Town: Tourism
• Mining Town: Mining

Push & Pull Factors Summarized

Push Factors (from countryside):

• Lack of services
• Lack of jobs
• Isolation (few connections)

Pull Factors (to the city):

• More entertainment
• Good transport links