Projecting landscapes of death

Abstract

Projecting the space needed for the disposal of the dead is often overlooked as a planning function, but the permanence of allocating land to cemetery use makes it critical to long range land use planning. There is very little contemporary guidance for planners on the variables which should be considered when projecting the land use needs of the dead. In this paper we present a method that illustrates the complexities of projecting landscapes of death. We then apply this method to the case of Palm Beach County, Florida, a county of over a million residents, many of whom are elderly, that may experience a shortage of cemetery land in the coming decades. This paper raises important issues when planning for the land use needs of the dead including burial migration and problems in estimating existing capacity. This work demonstrates that planners need to take a more active role in planning for the dead, especially given the lack of information on interment capacity in most locations in the country.