Proposal:Cemetery

Cemetery
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Pavvv
Tagging:	landuse=cemetery Data item
Applies to:	node, area
Definition:	A place where people (or sometimes animals) are buried
Statistics:
Draft started:	2025-03-23

Proposal

Define and approve one tag for mapping cemeteries as well as subtags for mapping the type of cemetery.

Rationale

Currently, we have two tags for mapping essentially the same thing being landuse=cemetery and amenity=grave_yard, which only differ based on where they're positioned and not by their characteristics. We also simply don't have an approved tagging scheme for cemeteries.

Tagging

landuse=cemetery – for mapping any kind of area where people (or sometimes animals) are buried
cemetery=* – for describing the type of cemetery. More detail below
religion=* & denomination=* – for describing the religion associated with the cemetery
name=*
parish=*
operator=*
disused=yes – for signifying that the cemetery is disused

Values for cemetery=*

Tag	Description	taginfo
cemetery=graveyard	A place where people are buried close to a amenity=place_of_worship (e.g. located within a churchyard)
cemetery=war_cemetery	A burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations
cemetery=wood	A burial forest. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_burial
cemetery=cillín	A disused burial ground mostly for unbaptized children in Ireland
cemetery=pet	A burial place for domestic animals

Due to the cemetery=* tag focusing on describing the type of cemetery and being required to be used together with landuse=cemetery, tags such as cemetery=grave should be moved to man_made=grave (see Proposal:Grave), cemetery=sector to amenity=cemetery_sector and other tags such as cemetery=columbarium to man_made=tomb + tomb=columbarium (see Tag:man made=tomb).

External discussions

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/proposal-cemeteries/127815

Comments

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