The competences in management and defense against the adverse effects of floods affect all Administrations, from the Local in the work of urban planning and civil protection, the Autonomous, in matters of spatial planning, civil protection and management of the public domain hydraulic systems in intra-community basins, up to the State one, in relation to civil protection, the management of the public hydraulic domain in inter-community basins and the management of the maritime-terrestrial public domain in floods caused in transition zones and those due to the elevation of the sea level. As a reinforcement of all these actions, the European Commission approved in November 2007 a Directive 2007/60, on the evaluation and management of floodswhich has been transposed into Spanish legislation throughRoyal Decree 903/2010 on risk assessment and management flood. The implementation of this Directive represents an opportunity to improve the coordination of all Administrations when it comes to reducing these damages, focusing mainly on the areas with the highest risk of flooding, called Areas of Significant Potential Risk of Flooding (ARPSI), for which establishes the obligation to prepare hazard maps and flood risk maps, and flood risk management plans, being applicable to floods caused by overflowing rivers, mountain streams and other continuous or intermittent water currents, as well as floods caused by the sea in coastal areas and those produced by the joint action of rivers and sea in transition zones. Thus, the Directive obliges Member States to do the following:
- PHASE I: Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (EPRI) identifying ARPSIs, both of fluvial and marine origin.
- PHASE II: Hazard and Risk Maps (MPRI).
- PHASE III: Flood Risk Management Plan (PGRI).
As a result of the EPRI in the first planning cycle (2016-2021), 22 ARPSIs of fluvial origin were identified, as well as other flood areas with less risk of flooding but enough to consider it convenient to extend the obtaining of the hazard mapping to them.
Thus, la the Flood Zone Cartography (ZI) began covering a total of 1,285 km of stretches of channels, which include those corresponding to the ARPSI, with the forecast of expanding in subsequent cycles. This cartography has been incorporated into the National System for Flooding Zones Cartography (SNCZI).
