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作者

来源

URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING,Vol.33,P.99-106

语言

英文

关键字

Ecosystem services; Identity; Lawn cemetery; Natural burial; Woodland; LANDSCAPES

作者单位

[Clayden, Andy] Univ Sheffield, Dept Landscape, Sheffield S10 2TN, S Yorkshire, England. [Green, Trish] Univ Hull, Hull York Med Sch, Kingston Upon Hull HU6 7RX, N Humberside, England. [Hockey, Jenny] Univ Sheffield, Dept Sociol Studies, Sheffield S10 2TU, S Yorkshire, England. [Powell, Mark] Newcastle Univ, Sch Civil Engn & Geosci, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, England. Clayden, A (reprint author), Univ Sheffield, Dept Landscape, Sheffield S10 2TN, S Yorkshire, England. E-Mail: a.clayden@sheffield.ac.uk

摘要

This article investigates the impact of natural burial on the delivery of ecosystem services (ESs) in urban cemeteries in England that are owned and managed by local authorities. Local authority natural burial sites have received far less attention from researchers than independent sites developed by farmers, charitable trusts, funeral directors and land owners. Here we argue that the local authority hybrid cemeteries that combine natural burial with traditional graves may have a far greater impact in delivering regulatory and cultural ecosystem services than the much larger and frequently more environmentally ambitious natural burial grounds developed by the independent sector. The article presents three case studies of cemeteries, each of which represents a different interpretation of natural burial. Two have retrofitted natural burial into an existing cemetery landscape. The third is a new cemetery where natural burial was included with traditional burial in the original design brief and planning application. The research reveals how natural burial is transforming the traditional cemetery, with its focus on an intensively managed lawn aesthetic, towards a more habitat rich and spatially complex landscape with its own distinctive identity. The research also reveals how natural burial (within the unique constraints of UK burial culture that does not permit the recycling of burial space) is increasing the burial capacity of urban cemeteries by accessing land and grave space that might not be suitable or appropriate for more traditional forms of burial.