Whereas Northwood is a small urban part of a nucleated settlement, which is part of a larger nucleated settlement, Hillingdon. Northwood’s main relief and physical geography is made up of flat concrete land with trees running alongside the roads, however there are a few open fields/recreational land.
The main type of industry present in Piddle Valley is that of arable farming on plantations, meaning that primary industry is present here. Although there are only a few services present here, such as a post office, church, pub and car parks, there is a nearby main road, which connects Piddle Valley to larger urban settlements.
Northwood in comparison has a lot of services and influences from larger urban settlements, such as numerous retail store/shops, car parks, variety of transport links, (rail, buses), restaurants, post office etc.
Moreover, Northwood’s main land use pattern is made up of residential areas and buildings, which follow nucleated pattern around the main services area. Whereas Piddle Valley is largely a rural area with few houses and buildings and it land use are mainly open fields.
Urban Land Use
As towns grow, the different functions that they perform tend to separate out into different areas. For example, industries may group together along a riverside or railway to form an industrial zone. As a result it is possible to recognise functional zones within every town, which are characterised by distinctive types of land use.
Towns and cities may be divided into different ‘functional zones/regions’. Each type of region has its own character and functions to perform. These zones are represented in land-use models, which help explain the layout/pattern of land use in most urban areas. The two land use models present in urban areas are The Burgees and Hoyt land-use models.
Rural Land Use
The land use patterns in rural areas tend to be extremely remote with rural features such as agriculture, forestry, recreational space and small settlements. Farm names often give clues to what is produced, this gives us an idea of the land quality. However some rural settlements have urban influences, usually as a result of their location or what industry is present, e.g. along coastlines, tourism. With rural areas they tend to be two main types of settlement present, nucleated and dispersed settlement. The main land use as we know is farming, arable farming is more likely to be present in nucleated settlements as farmers do not need to tend to their crop all the time. Whilst pastoral farming is present at dispersed settlements, where farmers tend to their livestock in large, unpopulated areas.
