The Board sends an ES-Alert to the Levante of Almería due to flood risk from heavy rains

The activation of the emergency phase of the Flood Plan in Andalusia is supported by three regulatory pillars: Law 2/2002, on Emergency Management in Andalusia; the Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Planning against Flood Risk; and the State Civil Protection Plan against flood risk. The Andalusian Special Plan must comply with this Guideline, so its phases, situations, and requirements follow the same scheme, integrated into the Andalusian civil protection system and 112-Andalusia.

1. Legal framework and type of plan

Law 2/2002 establishes special emergency plans as those developed for specific risks when there is a state Basic Guideline, as is the case with floods. These plans are prepared by the department responsible for civil protection and approved by the Government Council, integrated into the Andalusian Territorial Emergency Plan and homologated according to state regulations.

Law 2/2002 itself and the Basic Guideline require the plan to specify the organization, management bodies, coordination mechanisms with the Andalusian Emergency Coordination Center (112-Andalusia), and procedures to declare and deactivate the different emergency phases.

2. Phases and situations according to the Basic Guideline

The Basic Guideline for flood risk planning explicitly distinguishes three phases for emergency management:

• Pre-emergency phase: when there is information about the possible occurrence of events capable of causing floods (weather forecasts, hydrological warnings, etc.). The objective is to alert authorities and services and begin preventive information to the potentially affected population.
• Emergency phase: it begins when the analysis of meteorological and hydrological parameters concludes that flooding is imminent or already occurring, and it continues while the floods develop and until protection measures are implemented and basic services are restored.
• Normalization phase: subsequent phase, dedicated to rehabilitation and return to normality.

Within the emergency phase, the Guideline defines the following operational situations, which the Andalusian plan replicates:

• Situation 0: the imminence of floods within the plan's scope is foreseen, with danger to people and property.
• Situation 1: localized floods, manageable with available means and resources in the affected areas.
• Situation 2: floods that exceed local capacity or whose foreseeable evolution advises reinforcing means and coordinating at the regional level.
• Situation 3: emergencies declared of national interest by the competent minister, in which state direction and CECOPI are articulated.

3. Procedures and requirements to activate the emergency phase

Based on this framework, the procedures and requirements to activate the emergency phase of the Flood Plan in Andalusia can be summarized as follows:

• Reception and analysis of warnings: the Andalusian civil protection system and 112-Andalusia receive meteorological warnings (AEMET), hydrological warnings (hydrographic confederations), and from dam operators. The Guideline requires evaluating precipitation, levels in watercourses and reservoirs, overflow forecasts, and flood-prone areas.
• Technical risk assessment: the civil protection technical services of the Junta, supported by flood zone cartography and risk analyses, determine whether to move from pre-emergency to emergency, according to thresholds set in the plan (intensity and duration of rains, flows, expected impact on population centers and essential services, etc.).
• Activation proposal and situation determination: based on that assessment, the plan management (usually the body designated by the department responsible for emergencies, and within its scope the provincial officials) proposes the formal activation of the emergency phase and specifies whether situation 0, 1, or 2 applies at the regional level. If there is a risk of national interest, mechanisms are prepared for a possible state declaration (situation 3).
• Formal decision and communication: the management body of the regional plan issues the order to activate the emergency phase and the corresponding situation, which is immediately communicated to the Andalusian Emergency Coordination Center (112), territorial delegations, and, when appropriate, the General State Administration to activate coordination with the State Plan.
• Mobilization of resources and activation of action groups: the special plan must provide for intervention, security, health, logistics, social support groups, etc. With the activation of the emergency phase, these resources are put on pre-alert or effective intervention and the operational coordination centers are activated (at the regional level and, if applicable, CECOPI if there is state participation).
• Information to the population: the Guideline requires including accessible information and alert programs; during the emergency phase, mass warnings are disseminated about self-protection measures, possible evacuations, road closures, and shelter locations, with special attention to people with disabilities and vulnerable groups.
• Monitoring and possible escalation: throughout the emergency phase, meteorological and hydrological data and damage evolution are continuously reviewed. Depending on this evolution, the plan management may escalate the situation (from 0 to 1 or 2) or, if national interest is at stake, request the declaration of situation 3 and support from the State Plan.

Once the emergency phase is concluded, and when the main protection actions have been carried out and basic services restored, the competent authority proceeds to declare the normalization phase and, subsequently, the deactivation of the plan, according to the procedures provided in Law 2/2002 and in the Territorial Plan and Andalusian special plans themselves.

The current Andalusian Agency for Security and Comprehensive Emergency Management (EMA/Asema) is the highest technical civil protection body of the Junta and plays a central role in managing risk situations caused by intense rains and floods. Its powers are mainly based on Law 2/2002, on Emergency Management in Andalusia, its amendment by Law 2/2023, and the Statutes approved by Decree 270/2024, as well as specific planning such as the Special Emergency Plan against Flood Risk in Andalusia (PERI) and the Andalusian Territorial Civil Protection Emergency Plan.

General framework of powers

Article 6 of the Statutes (Decree 270/2024) establishes the Agency as the body responsible for:

• Developing and executing the Junta's policies on civil protection and emergencies, including those derived from Law 2/2002.
• Managing civil protection emergencies in Andalusia, regardless of their nature, and coordinating the operations and public and private bodies involved.
• Planning prevention and response, preparing the Territorial Emergency Plan and special plans (including the flood PERI) and ensuring their implementation and maintenance.
• Integrating regional prevention and response resources: Civil Protection Services, the 112-Andalusia Emergency Coordination Center, and the INFOCA Operational Unit, also coordinating other intervention services according to emergency plans.
• Assuming functional control of the emergency coordination center and advanced command posts when plans are activated.
• Activating administrative mechanisms to prevent and mitigate emergencies, protect people, and, if applicable, threatened property.
• Preparing studies, catalogs, and risk maps, resource catalogs, and statistics that serve as a basis for prevention policies and decision-making.
• Promoting self-protection and citizen awareness through training and information campaigns.

Specific functions regarding rains and floods

Applied to the risk of intense rains and floods, this framework is specified in several operational functions:

• Activation and monitoring of the PERI: Upon AEMET warnings of heavy rains or red and orange alerts, the competent Department, with information from the 112 Emergency Coordination Center, activates the Special Emergency Plan against Flood Risk in Andalusia in different phases (pre-emergency or emergency). Junta notes emphasize that, during pre-emergency, 112–Andalusia, attached to the Agency, performs continuous monitoring of the phenomenon and forecasts and informs competent bodies and the population.
• Incident coordination: 112, integrated into the Agency, receives calls from the public and coordinates the mobilization of firefighters, civil protection, security forces, road maintenance services, and municipal services, managing hundreds or thousands of incidents (water pools, road closures, home flooding, preventive evacuations, etc.).
• Operational management and advanced command posts: When the PERI is elevated to emergency phase, the Agency, through 112 and its management bodies, assumes control of the coordination center and advanced command posts, organizing regional resources and supporting municipal ones.
• Hydrometeorological risk analysis and management: The Statutes assign the Agency the development of meteorological risk and hazard indices, as well as the operation of a Risk Analysis Unit, which, according to Junta notes, works specifically on risks such as floods or storms.
• Prior planning and inter-administrative cooperation: The Agency participates in the updating of regional civil protection planning and coordinates with other departments, hydrographic confederations, and the General State Administration, in line with the State Civil Protection Plan against flood risk and the flood risk management plans of Andalusian internal basins.
• Information and warnings to the population: Through 112 and the Agency, self-protection recommendations are issued (avoid travel, do not cross flooded areas, stay away from watercourses, etc.) and mass alerts like Es-Alert are channeled in collaboration with State Civil Protection, as has been done in recent episodes in Huelva or Almería.
• Damage assessment and recovery: After storm episodes, the Agency collaborates in damage assessment and in proposing recovery and preventive reinforcement measures, also linked to instruments such as decree-laws for aid due to adverse natural phenomena.

In summary, the Agency not only coordinates 112 Andalusia but integrates planning, risk analysis, operational command, and public communication, making it the core of the Andalusian civil protection system against episodes of intense rains and floods.

The sending of ES‑Alert alerts to mobile phones in Spain is not regulated by a single isolated rule, but by a framework combining EU law, state telecommunications legislation, and the civil protection framework. ES‑Alert is essentially the technical implementation in Spain of the public wireless alert system required by European regulations.

1. European framework: obligation to have a public alert system

The legal origin of ES‑Alert lies in Directive (EU) 2018/1972, establishing the European Electronic Communications Code. This directive obliges Member States to have a system capable of sending public wireless alerts directly to mobile phones when there is a serious emergency, using electronic communications networks.

This obligation does not specify what the system should be called in each country (ES‑Alert in Spain), but it sets essential requirements:

• Ability to notify people in a specific area quickly and massively.
• Use of electronic communications networks (for example, Cell Broadcast over mobile networks).
• Compliance with data protection and privacy regulations.

2. Transposition in Spain: Law 11/2022, General Telecommunications Law

Spain incorporates this obligation into its internal legal system through Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications Law (text in the BOE).

According to the excerpts consulted from the law, it:

• Expressly recognizes the introduction of a public alert system via mobile services in cases of major disasters or imminent or ongoing emergencies.
• Imposes on mobile interpersonal communications service operators based on numbering the obligation to transmit public alerts to affected end users “under terms to be determined by royal decree.”
• Allows by royal decree the extension of alert dissemination to other electronic communications services, audiovisual communication services, or internet-based applications, provided the effectiveness is equivalent in coverage and capacity.
• Establishes that the transmission of these alerts must be free for end users and for the entity responsible for issuing them.
• Explicitly refers to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and Organic Law 3/2018 on data protection for the processing of personal data associated with emergency communications.

In summary, Law 11/2022 is the telecommunications regulation that creates the legal obligation for operators to support the public alert system materialized in ES‑Alert.

3. Civil protection framework: Law 17/2015 and PLEGEM

In parallel, the use of ES‑Alert as a civil protection tool is framed within Law 17/2015, of July 9, on the National Civil Protection System, which:

• Defines the National Civil Protection System and the distribution of powers between the State and autonomous communities.
• Creates the National Alert Network (RAN), designed to integrate warning systems of different administrations and allow a coordinated response.
• Recognizes information and warnings to the population as an essential right in emergency situations.

This architecture is operationally developed in the State General Civil Protection Emergency Plan (PLEGEM), approved by the Resolution of December 16, 2020, of the Undersecretariat of the Interior (text in the BOE). PLEGEM establishes that:

• The National Alert Network may use public and private data networks to transmit warnings and alerts, “including the possibility of deploying dedicated networks.”
• “For transmitting warnings to the population, systems based on mobile telephony networks that allow direct sending to citizens in affected areas may be used.”
• Information and warnings to the population must be accessible, understandable, and especially address people in vulnerable situations.

ES‑Alert is precisely that mobile telephony-based system, integrated into the National Alert Network and managed by Civil Protection.

4. Competences and operation of the ES‑Alert system

Based on this framework:

• Civil Protection authorities of the autonomous communities are generally those who decide on sending ES‑Alert messages in their territory (defining geographic scope and content), except in emergencies of national interest, where the Ministry of the Interior bodies intervene.
• ES‑Alert operates on Cell Broadcast technology, which allows sending a message to all devices connected to the antennas in a specific area, without needing to know phone numbers or collect personal data.
• Messages are reserved for serious emergencies and imminent risk situations requiring immediate population actions (floods, large fires, chemical accidents, extreme weather events, etc.).

In summary, the sending of ES‑Alert alerts is supported by three regulatory pillars: Directive (EU) 2018/1972 and the European Electronic Communications Code; Law 11/2022, General Telecommunications Law, which imposes on operators the transmission of public alerts; and Law 17/2015 together with PLEGEM, which integrate ES‑Alert into the National Civil Protection System and the National Alert Network as the official tool for mass warnings to the population.