ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the urban areas with a population of over 50,000 inhabitants in 1951 and utilizes fifty-seven separate indices to establish the basic character of each urban area. Field work is an essential part of any geographical study and the pupils will learn much by having to devise survey techniques, methods of presentation, questionnaires, and analyse the resultant findings. Local field work studies will do much to reveal the composition, functions and character of the respective urban areas, and provide a valuable insight into the spatial relationships of the component land uses. The existence of urban settlements can be traced back to the fourth millennium b.c. when they played an important part in facilitating advances in learning, the arts, technology and social organization by providing a relatively secure and economically stable environment. In the field of urban studies little progress has been made in establishing definitive techniques, let alone laws, which stand the acid test of universal application.
