List of settlements in New Ingerland
New Ingerland's urban settlements are those defined as an area having population clusters of 100 or more people.
Definitions
The Land Planning Act of 1975 defines an urban settlement as an area of concentrated human population. Urban settlements are subdivided in to one of the following categories:
- City, a settlement exceeding 50,000 people, with multiple commercial and industrial hubs;
- Town, a settlement between 1,000 and 50,000, with a significant commercial and industrial centre;
- Townland, a rural area inside a town boundary, often intensively farmed for market gardening, &c;
- Village, a settlement between 100 and 1,000 people, with a small commercial centre;
- Hamlet, a settlement of less than 100 people, with no commercial centre.
Urban planning
Since 1945, New Ingerland has become a highly urbanised society, like most nations in the west. For the most part, cities and towns tend to be clean, safe and well ordered places, with little pollution, crime or social dislocation. In order to prevent mass urban sprawl around the major centres, in 1947 the government undertook a policy of creating new towns in the smaller counties and linking them to with roads and railways. Many of these towns were small villages that had been largely abandoned during the first half of the twentieth century. In all counties, people were encouraged into smaller communities of 1,000 or less by cheap land and easy access to services. Land around these towns is designated as a greenbelt, and subdivision and house construction is highly restricted. Today, all cities and towns in New Ingerland are arranged according a complex planning hierarchy. At each stage in the hierarchy, different services are offered.
The various major urban centres of New Ingerland are organised into a planning hierarchy consisting of districts and sub-districts; which at the top contain a town centre, followed by several sub-district service centres, and then a number of local suburbs. There also exist a number of other industrial areas and villages outside the general pattern of this planning hierarchy. The hierarchy forms a basis for urban planning and development, and are significant to the commercial and social activities of a city. Because New Ingerland was not highly urbanised until after 1945, town planners have been able to build cities that are focused on attractive living spaces with integrated public transport and easy access to community facilities.