Urban Settlement & Structure is one of 8 topics in the Grade 12 Geography CAPS syllabus, covered across 3 lessons on Study Vault. Below are real practice questions from this topic with full worked answers.
Sample practice questions
Easy
1. The Central Business District (CBD) of a city is generally characterised by:
The highest land values and the tallest buildings
The lowest land values and single-storey buildings only
No commercial activity at all
Exclusively residential land use
Answer: The highest land values and the tallest buildings — The CBD typically has the highest land values (due to peak accessibility and demand) and the tallest buildings, as businesses build vertically to maximise use of expensive land.
Easy
2. The Burgess model describes a city growing outward from the CBD in which shape?
A series of roughly circular concentric rings
Wedge-shaped sectors along transport routes
Multiple separate, unconnected nodes
A single straight line
Answer: A series of roughly circular concentric rings — The Burgess concentric zone model describes urban land use expanding outward from the CBD in roughly circular rings of increasingly higher-income housing.
Medium
3. Which urban structure model proposes that land uses extend outward from the CBD in wedge-shaped sectors along transport routes, rather than uniform rings?
Answer: The Hoyt sector model — The Hoyt sector model proposes that a particular land use, once established along a transport corridor from the CBD, continues expanding outward along that same corridor as wedge-shaped sectors, rather than uniform concentric rings.
