ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses historians' approach to defining 'urban' and analyses its determinants. It provides the theoretical framework for discussions on urban form. Widespread illegality and corruption in the government system and the irresponsible approach of planners are other reasons for the patchy urban form constituted by the planned and unplanned urban spaces. The inclusion of rural land into urban boundaries is a usual phenomenon of urbanisation. The chapter looks at the definition of urban form, as explained by design discipline scholars and also the determinants which guide human settlements, as explained by social scientists. It presents a correspondence between non-design determinants and the original factors that were identified by B. G. Trigger for prehistoric cities. The determinants have been useful for studying the historic evolution of cities, and in understanding the pattern of settlements at different scales, starting from building to zonal pattern.
