Emergency plans in Spain: the types that exist and when they're mandatory

Three types of plan, one law

Emergency planning in Spain is governed by Law 17/2015 on the National Civil Protection System and by Royal Decree 524/2023, the Basic Civil Protection Standard that in 2023 replaced the older RD 393/2007. Under that framework, three types of plan coexist: territorial plans, which cover a full geographic area (a municipality or an autonomous community); special plans, designed around a specific risk — wildfire, flood, chemical accident —; and self-protection plans, mandatory for specific centres and activities. None replaces the others: they integrate into each other following a hierarchy set out by law.

Territorial plans: the general framework for every municipality

The Municipal Territorial Plan — called PTM, PTME in the Comunitat Valenciana, PEMU in Galicia and the Balearic Islands, or PLATEMUN depending on the region — is the instrument that organises a local government's response to any situation of serious collective risk. It is led by the mayor, and it sets out how the municipality's human and material resources are mobilised to protect people, property and the environment. It sits below the regional and national plans, so it must complement them rather than replace them.

• Municipalities with more than 20,000 residents: a general obligation in most autonomous communities.
• Municipalities with more than 5,000 residents: also mandatory under some regional legislation.
• Tourist municipalities: mandatory regardless of registered population.
• Municipalities on the Risk Catalogue and Map: mandatory due to their geographic exposure or industrial activity.
• Comunitat Valenciana: the PTME is mandatory for every municipality, with no population threshold.

Special plans: one plan per risk in the territory

When a risk needs its own technical-scientific methodology — risk identification and analysis, zoning, alert systems, real-time assessment —, Law 17/2015 requires a special plan. Each autonomous community approves its own for the risks present in its territory, and often gives it its own acronym, which is why the same risk carries a different name depending on where you look it up.

• Wildfires: PAMIF and PLEIF at municipal level, plus the regional plans INFOCA (Andalusia), INFOCAT (Catalonia), INFOMA (Balearic Islands), INFOCAM (Madrid), INFOMUR (Murcia), INFOPA (Asturias) and INFOGAL (Galicia).
• Floods: PAMRI at municipal level, plus INUNCAT (Catalonia), INUNBAL (Balearic Islands), INUNMUR (Murcia), INUNCYL (Castile and León), INUNGAL (Galicia) and INUNCAM (Castilla-La Mancha).
• Seismic risk: PAMSIS at municipal level, plus SISMICAT (Catalonia) and SISMIMUR (Murcia).
• Chemical risk: PLASEQCAT and PLASEQTA (Catalonia, with a dedicated plan for Tarragona) and PLASEQCAM (Madrid).
• Hazardous goods transport and weather events: TRANSCAT/TRANSCYL and NEUCAT/VENTCAT/PROCICAT, respectively.

Self-protection plans: the obligation that sits on the site, not the municipality

The Self-Protection Plan (PAU) is different from everything above because it doesn't depend on where a municipality is, but on what activity takes place at a specific site. RD 524/2023 requires it — with its nine chapters, from risk identification to maintenance and implementation — for a closed list of activities set out in its Annex I:

• Shopping centres above a surface-area threshold.
• Hospitals and healthcare centres.
• Educational centres: schools, secondary schools and universities.
• Hotels and tourist accommodation above a capacity threshold.
• Industrial facilities handling hazardous substances.
• Car parks with more than 500 vehicles or more than 3 floors.
• Road tunnels longer than 250 metres.
• Critical infrastructure, prisons, care homes for the elderly and nuclear facilities.

What happens when the mandatory plan doesn't exist, or nobody knows where it is

Not having the plan that applies — or having one drafted but outdated, with no drills on record, or with a team that doesn't know where to find it — carries real consequences: administrative penalties under regional legislation, civil and criminal liability if damage results from a lack of planning, and even an insurance policy being voided over a claim without the required planning in place. Drafting a plan that meets these requirements takes specialised technical expertise: technical offices such as Oficina Maestre, with more than 40 municipal and risk-specific emergency plans drafted across Spain, usually handle that first stage. But the challenge doesn't end once the document is drafted: a civil protection plan only does its job if it stays alive, up to date and accessible to whoever has to activate it on the day it's needed. That's exactly where Comacon operates, centralising every plan, its documentation and its drill history in a single place that can be consulted in real time.