Dispersed or Scattered Settlement

Dispersed or Scattered Settlement Also known as isolated settlements, such patterns are characterised by settlement units of small size which may consist of a single hamlet (two to seven huts). Hamlets are scattered over a vast area and the settlement follows no specific plan.

Such settlement patterns are generally distributed over undulating or hilly and forested areas. Those settlements which are situated on hillocks and knolls overlooking the fields along the slope are generally associated with tribal communities, as in northern West Bengal, Chhotanagpur plateau, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, etc. Such patterns are also 'common in the hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Such settlements are a characteristic feature of regions where the households organise their labour on cooperative basis in order to carry out agricultural operations, as in the north-eastern region, especially in Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Sometimes, the dispersed settlements are totally shapeless or amorphous. This happens in south­western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Malwa, Chhotanagpur plateau, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.'Scattered settlements are common in Africa. Such settlements are also found in mountainous regions of China.