An Exemplifying Study on Graveyard Removal in an Agricultural Land Consolidation Project

To modernize agricultural and rural areas, what is needed is not only infrastructure Improvement which enables mechanized farming, but also comprehensive improvement of inhabited areas. An agricultural land consolidation project should be planned to solve Both of these problems. Recently, in view of more effective land use, a larger scale land consolidation is orientated. In planning the project, houses and graveyards present here and there in the project area sometimes hinder ideal allocation of roads, channels and fields. Therefore, it is crucial in order for rational Planning, to obtain lots for non-agricultural use which enable those impeding objects to be shifted. One of the most feasible ways to obtain the lots is by making use of converted substitute lots in the process of the land consolidation project. In particular, removal of graveyards and reuse of former graveyard sites is sometimes Very difficult to handle, because they are subject to religious restrictions. In this paper, The authors investigated old customs and religious backgrounds of the graveyards in the Research area. Then they investigated the examples of successful treatment of the Converted substitute lots in shifting the graveyards.