PHYSICAL AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FEATURES OF A TOWN

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF A TOWN

The physical features of a town include : Relief, vegetation, climate and drainage.

1. Relief: Relief of a town may either be on a lowland and fairly on plateau e.g. Jos. Majority of the towns are located on a lowland or flat land which is suitable for human settlement and establishment of many other social-cultural features like schools, markets, mosquitoes and roads.
2. Climate: The climate of all the towns in Nigeria varies based on the location of such towns. Towns in the Southern parts of the country do experience equatorial type of climate with low temperature and heavy rainfall while the towns in Northern part of Nigeria do experience tropical continental (dry) climate or Sudan climate with hot temperature and low rainfall.
3. Drainage: Drainage refers to water bodies like rivers and lakes. While some towns may have rivers or lakes for domestic or individual use while other towns may not have them. Such towns may either get water by government water protects or boreholes sunk by individuals.
4. Vegetation: The vegetation of any town varies from one town to another. Forest vegetation is common to towns located in southern parts of Nigeria while Savanna vegetation is common to towns located in the northern parts of Nigeria.

SOCIO-CULTURAL FEATURES OF A TOWN

The socio-cultural features of a town include all the features which enable such town to exist and permits all human activities to strive. Such socio-cultural features are:

1. Educational establishment: Majority of the towns do have primary and secondary schools, polytechnics, colleges of education and universities which are built to enable the citizens to acquire basic education.
2. Markets: Market do exist in all towns. The market may be big and its activities are normally on daily basis where people trade in different commodities.
3. Infrastructures: Many towns do have basic infrastructures like good roads, electricity and pipe-borne water. Most of the roads are tarred.
4. Settlement: A settlement is a collection of buildings with people living in them. The town settlement is mainly an urban settlements. They are usually large, densely populated with socially heterogenous people who do not know one another very well. They are usually nucleated settlements.
5. Religious activities: All towns are usually associated with religious activities where churches and mosques are established to serve as religion centres.

DIRECTION AND LOCATION OF PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES WITHIN THE TOWN

There is a wide variations in the direction and location of physical features in a town setting. While majority of the physical features in the town like rivers, mountains, lowland, vegetation are located naturally or by nature, lots of the cultural features are located or made by human activities. Cultural features like school, markets, roads, churches and mosques are normally built by the people or government which may be located in suitable places in the town. In other words, majority of the physical features are created by nature and remain where they are, the cultural features are made or establish by the people and can be located in suitable places within the town.