Earthquakes in Spain: the map of the areas with the highest risk after the earthquake in Granada

In Spain, seismic-resistant construction standards are approved as state technical regulations (mainly royal decrees that modify the Technical Building Code (CTE) or approve specific standards such as the NCSE‑02 or the NCSP‑07). The procedure combines general legislation on the development of regulatory standards with specific notification and technical coordination requirements.

1. Regulatory framework of reference

• Law 38/1999, on Building Regulation (LOE), which sets the basic structural safety requirements and authorizes the Government to approve the CTE and its updates.
• Royal Decree 314/2006, which approves the Technical Building Code and empowers the competent Ministry to periodically modify its Basic Documents.
• Royal Decree 997/2002, which approves the Seismic-Resistant Construction Standard: general part and building (NCSE‑02) , and Royal Decree 637/2007 for the Seismic-Resistant Construction Standard: Bridges (NCSP‑07) .
• Law 50/1997, on the Government, which regulates the procedure for drafting regulations (reports, consultations, hearings, opinion of the Council of State, approval by the Council of Ministers).
• Royal Decree 1337/1999, which imposes notification to the EU of draft standards and technical regulations (transposition of Directive 98/34/EC, now replaced by Directive (EU) 2015/1535).

2. Bodies involved

• Competent Ministry in housing/building (formerly Housing, then Development and today Transport and related agendas): drafts the project and proposes to the Council of Ministers the approval or modification of the CTE and seismic-resistant standards.
• Permanent Commission of Seismic-Resistant Standards, an interministerial collegiate body that, according to the preamble of RD 997/2002, drafts and proposes seismic-resistant building standards (NCSE‑02) and serves as specialized technical support.
• Council of Ministers, which approves the royal decrees adopting or modifying these standards.
• Autonomous Communities and affected sectors, which must be heard during the processing, as indicated, for example, in RD 314/2006.
• Council of State, which issues a mandatory opinion on draft royal decrees of special relevance such as the CTE and its major revisions.

3. Main phases of the procedure

a) Technical drafting of the project

The initiative usually comes from the competent ministry or the Permanent Commission of Seismic-Resistant Standards. This commission, according to RD 997/2002, prepares the proposal for a new standard or revision (for example, replacing the old NCSE‑94 with NCSE‑02) considering the evolution of seismology, seismic engineering, and international or European standards.

b) Internal procedures and administrative coordination

In accordance with Law 50/1997 and the practice reflected in RD 314/2006 and its amendments (such as RD 732/2019 or RD 450/2022), the draft royal decree must be accompanied by:

• Justification report (need, objectives, alternatives, impact).
• Legal and technical reports from the involved directorates and, if applicable, other ministries with concurrent competencies (infrastructure, energy, civil protection, etc.).
• Consultation with the Autonomous Communities, due to the territorial and competency impact of building regulations.
• In many cases, participation of sectoral advisory bodies (technical commissions on building quality or others).

c) Hearing and public information

Provisions modifying the CTE and seismic-resistant standards are usually subject to:

• Hearing of organizations and associations of affected sectors (professional associations, builders, engineers, insurers…), as provided in the LOE and specified, for example, in Order VIV/1744/2008 on the CTE Registry.
• Public information procedure, with publication of the draft on the ministry's website for comments from any interested party.

d) Notification to the European Union

Both RD 997/2002 and RD 637/2007 and several revisions of the CTE explicitly state that the procedures of Royal Decree 1337/1999 and Directive 98/34/EC (now Directive 2015/1535) have been fulfilled. This implies:

• Notify the European Commission of the draft technical standard (due to its impact on products and free movement in the internal market).
• Respect a statu quo period, during which the standard cannot be definitively approved if the Commission or other Member States raise substantive observations.

e) Opinion of the Council of State and approval

Once reports, consultations, and European notification are completed, the draft is sent to the Council of State for opinion. With that opinion:

• The Council of Ministers approves the royal decree incorporating the new seismic-resistant standard or modifying the CTE.
• The text is published in the Official State Gazette, where a transitional period for adaptation is usually set: for example, NCSE‑02 provided two years during which the previous or the new standard could be chosen, unless the competent administration made the latter mandatory.

In summary, approving new seismic-resistant standards in Spain requires a complete regulatory procedure: specialized technical drafting, interministerial and Autonomous Community coordination, hearing and public information, prior notification to the EU, and finally approval by royal decree of the Council of Ministers and publication in the Official State Gazette with clearly defined entry into force and adaptation periods.

The National Geographic Institute (IGN), attached to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, is the state reference body for monitoring seismic activity and other geophysical phenomena in Spain. Its competencies in this area are articulated through the National Seismic Network and various plans and regulations that assign it the observation, evaluation, and communication of potentially destructive phenomena.

From a regulatory standpoint, several provisions define its functions. The Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Planning against Tsunami Risk, approved by Royal Decree 1053/2015, of November 20, integrates the National Seismic Network (RSN), dependent on the IGN, into the National Tsunami Warning System. This Guideline establishes that the RSN is the body responsible for detecting, assessing, and initially informing about phenomena that, due to their characteristics, may generate tsunamis, implying a continuous function of seismic monitoring and rapid event analysis.

Additionally, Royal Decree 253/2024, of March 12, which develops the basic organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, assigns to the General Directorate of the IGN, among others, the competence of planning and managing monitoring, communication, and alert systems for certain geophysical risks. A convention published in the Official State Gazette explicitly states that, according to this royal decree, the IGN is responsible for:

• The planning and management of monitoring, communication, and alert systems to institutions regarding tsunamis that may affect the Spanish coasts, as well as participation in international alert networks and conducting studies on early warning systems and hazard.
• The planning and management of geodetic networks, tide gauges, and other observation infrastructures, which serve as a basis for geodynamic analysis and monitoring of deformations and sea level variations linked to seismic and tsunami phenomena.

This framework is complemented by the National Plan for Seismic, Volcanological, and Other Geophysical Phenomena Monitoring, approved by the Council of Ministers on March 4, 2025 and developed by the IGN itself. According to the official note from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Plan develops 58 measures to strengthen monitoring and detection networks for destructive natural phenomena (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, or space storms), improve alert communication systems, and optimize inter-administrative coordination.

In this context, the IGN assumes a central role in:

• The operation and improvement of the National Seismic Network, including the deployment of new stations and modernization of instrumentation.
• The development of artificial intelligence-based tools to improve early warnings in case of earthquakes, aiming to reduce detection times and uncertainty about magnitude and location.
• The preparation of short-, medium-, and long-term forecasts on seismic hazard and other geophysical risks, supporting emergency planning and the definition of public risk reduction policies.

Operationally, the seismic monitoring carried out by the IGN materializes in several complementary lines of activity:

• Continuous 24/7 monitoring of seismicity through the National Seismic Network, which records and analyzes earthquakes occurring in the national territory and its areas of influence.
• Rapid determination of earthquake parameters (location, magnitude, depth) and initial assessment of possible impact, information transmitted to Civil Protection and other competent authorities.
• Issuance of reports and bulletins on seismic activity and specific episodes, serving both emergency management and public communication.
• Scientific and technical cooperation with universities, observation consortia, and other research infrastructures, through agreements that provide for data exchange, deployment of new stations, and joint development of advanced monitoring projects (for example, for tsunamis).

In summary, the IGN not only manages the instrumental network that allows monitoring and characterizing earthquakes affecting Spain, but also, supported by royal decrees defining its functions and by the National Plan for Seismic and Volcanological Monitoring, acts as the main node of the public alert system and technical support for civil protection against seismic risks and other geophysical phenomena.

No explicit and detailed table or news item showing the distribution of seats in the Congress of Deputies by province for Granada, Almería, Murcia, and Alicante in the latest general elections has been found in the consulted sources, neither in the Demócrata newspaper database nor in complementary web searches. For this reason, I cannot indicate, with concrete documentary support, which party obtained the greatest parliamentary representation in each of those constituencies.

The research conducted has tracked various types of content about general elections: analyses of the composition of the Congress after 23J, articles on the formation of parliamentary groups, poll aggregators, and contextual pieces on parliamentary arithmetic. However, these texts focus on:

• The sum of seats by large blocs (for example, PP–Vox versus PSOE–Sumar and other partners) at the national level.
• The discussion about the supports needed to invest a president or validate royal decree-laws.
• Organizational issues of the Congress and Senate (constitution of committees, advisors' salaries, seat transfers to form groups, etc.).

None of these pieces delve into the territorial detail you need (seats in the Congress by party and by province for the latest general elections, constituency by constituency). More specific queries were also tried – for example, “definitive results general elections 23J 2023 Congress province Granada/Almería/Murcia/Alicante seat distribution,” “map of Congress results by provinces July 23, 2023,” or “table of seats by provinces 23J Granada Almería Murcia Alicante” – limiting dates to the days after the elections. Despite this, no graphics, tables, or news with the provincial data allowing a confident statement about which party has the most deputies in each of those four provinces appeared.

Since the instructions I follow require me to base the response only on effectively located information this time (and not to fill gaps with prior memory or estimates), it is not possible to offer a list of “winning party by province” without incurring a degree of speculation that would not be acceptable for rigorous use. Any statement such as “in province X party Y has the most seats in the Congress after the latest general elections” should be explicitly supported by:

• Either the official results from the Ministry of the Interior (Directorate General of Internal Policy), which publishes the definitive scrutiny by constituency and candidacy on its electoral results website.
• Or some data aggregator (press, polling or data portals) that reproduces that provincial table with sufficient clarity and update date.

Since such tables have not appeared in the retrieved documents, the only solid recommendation I can give you is to go directly to the official source. To obtain the exact information you seek, the most reliable path is:

1. Enter the Ministry of the Interior's electoral results website (general elections).
2. Select the process of the latest general elections held (the most recent marked as “definitive”).
3. Choose, in the menu, the option “Congress of Deputies.”
4. Filter by constituency and consult, one by one, the provinces of Granada, Almería, Murcia, and Alicante.
5. Note for each province:
   • Which parties have obtained seats.
   • How many seats each has.

With that table in front of you, you can immediately see which party has the greatest representation in each constituency; if there are ties in the number of seats (for example, two parties with the same number of deputies in the same province), that would also be clear in the official breakdown itself.

If you wish, in a second step I can help you interpret those data once you have them (for example, comparing the provincial distribution with the national result, analyzing whether there is a clear bloc dominance in those provinces or greater fragmentation, or seeing the evolution compared to previous elections).