Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to (per CED LO PSO-5.B):

• Explain that specific agricultural practices shape different rural land-use patterns (per EK PSO-5.B.1).
• Identify and define the three CED-named rural settlement patterns: clustered, dispersed, and linear (per EK PSO-5.B.2).
• Identify and define the three CED-named rural survey methods: metes and bounds, township and range, and long lot (per EK PSO-5.B.3).
• Read an aerial photograph or satellite image of a rural area and identify both the settlement pattern and the survey method.
• Apply Skill 4.D: compare visual sources from different regions to draw conclusions about settlement and survey patterns.

Per CED EK PSO-5.B.1, "specific agricultural practices shape different rural land-use patterns." Per EKs B.2 and B.3, the CED names exactly three settlement patterns and three survey methods that show up in rural landscapes worldwide.

Patterns vs methods

The two are related but distinct. Settlement patterns describe how buildings (houses, barns, churches) are arranged across the rural landscape. Survey methods describe how the land itself was divided into properties. The same survey method can produce different settlement patterns depending on cultural preferences. The same settlement pattern can sit on different survey grids depending on history.

Why these specific six

The CED names exactly three settlement patterns (clustered, dispersed, linear) and three survey methods (metes and bounds, township and range, long lot). All six show up on aerial photographs and satellite images, which is why Skill 4.D (compare visual sources) is paired with this topic. Memorize all six and one geographic example of each.

Per CED EK PSO-5.B.2. Memorize all three plus one geographic example of each.

Per CED EK PSO-5.B.3. The three methods produce dramatically different field shapes visible from above.

Memory shortcut: Metes and bounds = irregular (English colonial); Township and range = grid (US Midwest); Long lot = strips (French colonial). The three methods correlate strongly with the colonial power that surveyed the area.

Four cases that show settlement patterns and survey methods in real countries.

United States · All Three Surveys, All Three Patterns

PLSS covers ~70% of US land area

The US is the textbook case for all three CED-named survey methods coexisting in one country. Original 13 colonies use metes and bounds (irregular). The Midwest and West use township and range (rectangular grid). Louisiana parishes along the Mississippi River use French long lots. Settlement patterns also vary: dispersed in the Plains (commercial agriculture), more clustered in older Eastern settlements.

Country page →

Canada · Long Lot Heritage

Quebec's rang system · established ~1620s

Quebec preserves one of the world's largest long lot landscapes. The French colonial rang (row) system gave each habitant a strip of land perpendicular to the St. Lawrence River, with a narrow river frontage and a long inland extent. Acadian settlements in the Maritimes use the same logic. Linear settlement along the river reinforces the long lot survey pattern.

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China · Clustered Villages

~600,000 administrative villages

Rural China is the classic case of clustered settlement. Villages of a few hundred to a few thousand people concentrate buildings into a tight core, with intensively cultivated fields surrounding the village. Daily walks from village to fields and back are short. The pattern reflects centuries of intensive rice and other cereal cultivation requiring shared labor and water management.

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Australia · Dispersed Outback

Stations sometimes >1M acres

Australia's outback ranching properties (called "stations") are some of the world's most dispersed settlement patterns. A single ranch may extend over a million acres, with one homestead and almost no other buildings. The pattern reflects extensive cattle and sheep grazing on arid lands — the opposite extreme from the clustered Chinese village.

Country page →

1. Per EK PSO-5.B.1, agricultural practices shape settlement patterns. What features of intensive farming favor clustered settlement, and what features of extensive farming favor dispersed settlement?
2. The three CED-named survey methods correlate strongly with colonial origin: metes and bounds (English), township and range (US federal), long lot (French). What does this tell us about the lasting geographic influence of colonial decisions?
3. Quebec's long lot system is preserved 400 years after French colonization. Why hasn't it been replaced by a more modern survey grid? What forces tend to lock in survey patterns over centuries?
4. Township and range was implemented in the US Midwest after the 1785 Land Ordinance. It produced regular rectangular fields visible from the air today. What efficiencies does the grid provide, and what flexibility does it sacrifice?
5. Settlement patterns are changing as commercial agriculture replaces family farms (Topic 5.7). What happens to dispersed family-farm landscapes when corporations consolidate? Is the dispersed pattern becoming more clustered, more empty, or something else?

Draft alignment — pending educator review. AP HG codes correspond to the official College Board Course and Exam Description (Effective Fall 2020, V.1). Statements below are paraphrased in CountryReports' own voice; refer to the College Board's published CED for verbatim wording.

AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the College Board. The College Board was not involved in the production of this material and does not endorse it. Standards statements above are paraphrased; codes refer back to the official College Board CED, the NCSS C3 Framework, the Common Core State Standards, and other cited frameworks.