2.2 2. Villages and Rural Communities
Geography of Korea: II. Population and Living Space > 2. Villages and Rural Communities
2. Villages and Rural Communities
We locale where people settle down to live can be categorized into rural and urban settlements. Generally, a settlement that is centered on a single primary industry will be a rural settlement, while a settlement that has a sizeable population centered on secondary and tertiary industries will be an urban settlement. The Korean term “maeul” (village) designates a rural settlement comprising a collection of single-family dwellings, and forms the basic unit of social life.
The rural settlement consists of homes and ancillary facilities, roads, waterways, agricultural land, forest, and religious structures. The features of a village will vary according to natural environment, the primary industry or livelihood of the inhabitants, social or cultural characteristics of the area, and the historical development of the village in question. For instance, rural villages can be both large and small in scale and can be both regular and irregular in layout. Land and dwelling use can also vary depending on whether village dwellers are primarily engaged in the agricultural or fishing/aquacultural industry.
