Unlike the system of urban settlement, rural settlement in modern Russian regions is not homogeneous, but consists of a large number of separate local and often unrelated structures, mostly of a linear type, some of which arose in an earlier period. The article assesses the scientific potential of the methods of urban planning study of such formations, in particular, the methods of classification and typololization, systemic and topological approaches. The possibility of more active work with systemic and topological methods is proved during the analysis of cases - subsystems of rural settlement in the Sverdlovsk region.