The traditional character of settlement is changing in rural areas of mainland Europe. Explain why this is happening. (4 marks)

Answer: The traditional character of rural settlement is changing for a number of reasons. Firstly, as more people, once employed in farmingnow unemployed as modern farming machinery takes the place of manual labour, leave the area to look for work elsewhere, more commuters move to the area as they can easily drive to work in the city. Also, tourism has had a great impact on the area. As more people can afford second homes or holiday homes, the local services become more geared towards tourists instead of the local people.

Factors influencing Change in Rural Areas
1)Technological Change in Agriculture 2Transport Improvements 3)Second Homes. For a named rural area you have studied, describe the impact of one of the above factors which influences change in rural areas. (4 marks)

Answer: In some areas, such as the Paris Basin there is now more second homes than farm houses etc. The houses are used for holiday homes and are only occupied a few weeks of the year. Problems occur when there are more holiday homes than farm houses and houses occupied by locals. The local services suffer because the shops are only used on the weekends and holidays, for the rest of the time the services arent used because there is a lack of villagers. This means that the services have to close, causing a loss of jobs for the workers and more people moving to cities in search of work. it is now easyer to get from the country to the city as more commuters are now travelling from the city to the country which could cause an improvement of transport links.