Settlement structure
Spatial development glossary, European Conference of Ministers responsible for Spatial/Regional Planning (CEMAT), Territory and landscape, No 2, published by Council of Europe Publishing in 2007, defines settlement structure as: ‘…the characteristics of the distribution of towns, cities, villages, hamlets, etc. at a wider scale. In this respect, differences can be made between: agglomerated regions (various settlements organised around a dominating metropolitan area), dispersed settlements (homogenous distribution of small and medium-sized urban entities over an area), polycentric settlement systems (organisation of a region around several urban entities), networks of cities (strongly interdependent urban entities in terms of functions without physical continuity), conurbations (groupings of various urban entities close to each other).’
See also: Urban structure.
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