City dwellers may see conventional burials become a luxury, available only to the very wealthy, as urban crowding makes available space scarce. Cities and cemeteries have been forced to adapt and innovate so those who want it continue to have access to burial, in one form or another. The options are change, shrink, or disappear.

Despite the density of most urban living spaces, many still expect to “die in villas,” as dense-burial design specialist Tuvia Sagiv describes the relatively large size of most burial plots. The extra demand for space spawned by burial expectations is especially strong in cultures that discourage cremation, where people have no option but to compete—meaning pay more—for increasingly scare real estate. Urban cemeteries are filling up without room to grow. The effects are obvious: The number of cremations nationwide has risen to 30 percent in the past 30 years.....Continue Reading

> via 100resilientcities.org