The current wave of wildfires has once again brought to the forefront the alerts that thousands of citizens receive on their mobile phones through ES-Alert, the warning system of Civil Protection. Far from being a tool created on a whim, its development responds to the lessons learned from some of the greatest emergencies experienced in Spain, which highlighted the need to improve risk communication with the population.
Before the implementation of mass alerts on mobile devices, emergency information primarily depended on sirens, radio broadcasts, television, loudspeakers, or alerts made by the security forces and emergency services. The consolidation of the National Civil Protection System and, subsequently, the creation of the National Alert Network have allowed for the incorporation of new technologies to reach citizens immediately.
Tous: the origin of modern Civil Protection
The floods caused by the breaking of the Tous dam (Valencia) in October 1982 evidenced the lack of a homogeneous system to coordinate the response of administrations to major disasters.
That episode prompted the creation of a specific legal framework that culminated in the approval of the Law 2/1985, of January 21, on Civil Protection, the first state regulation that governed emergency planning. Subsequently, the Royal Decree 407/1992 approved the Basic Civil Protection Standard, which established the criteria for developing territorial and special plans against different risks.
Biescas reinforces prevention
The flood that devastated the Las Nieves campsite in Biescas (Huesca) in August 1996, with 87 fatalities and over a hundred injured, marked a new turning point.
After the tragedy, administrations reinforced studies on flood-prone areas, preventive planning, and meteorological monitoring systems, consolidating risk assessment as one of the pillars of emergency management.
Prestige and Lorca: more coordination among administrations
The sinking of the oil tanker Prestige, in 2002, and the earthquake in Lorca, in 2011, highlighted the need to improve coordination among different administrations and to provide faster information to the public during the first hours of an emergency.
These experiences contributed to reviewing the action protocols and accelerated the modernization of the National Civil Protection System, a process that culminated in a new regulation of the emergency system.
The birth of ES-Alert
One of the most relevant changes came with the approval of the Law 17/2015, of July 9, of the National Civil Protection System, which replaced the 1985 regulation and adapted the Spanish model to new risks such as extreme weather phenomena, technological accidents, or threats arising from climate change.
The law created the National Alert Network (RAN), designed to integrate and coordinate the warning systems of the different public administrations and facilitate a faster and more homogeneous response to emergency situations.
The next boost came from the European Union. The Directive (EU) 2018/1972, which establishes the European Electronic Communications Code, required member states to have a public alert system capable of sending alerts directly to mobile phones when there is a serious emergency.
In compliance with this regulation, Spain developed ES-Alert, integrated into the National Alert Network. The system began to be deployed in 2021, conducted tests in all autonomous communities during 2022, and became fully operational in February 2023. Since then, authorities can send a message accompanied by an acoustic signal and vibration to all mobile phones located within a specific geographical area, without the need to install any application.
The DANA of Valencia
The DANA that affected the Valencian Community on October 29, 2024, one of the largest natural disasters recorded in Spain in recent decades, represented the greatest test for ES-Alert since its implementation.
The system then gained significant public visibility because the time at which the alert message was sent to mobile phones was the subject of political, judicial, and social controversy, as various affected individuals and experts considered that the warning was issued when a large part of the emergency had already unfolded.
The management of those alerts has come to occupy a central place in the institutional debate on the response to the catastrophe and reopened the discussion on the activation criteria of ES-Alert, the coordination between administrations, and the speed in communicating the risk to the population, issues that continue to be present in the analyses on emergency management.
An increasingly used tool
Since its launch, ES-Alert has been used to warn the population about wildfires, floods, adverse weather phenomena, industrial accidents, or hazardous substance leaks, becoming one of the main instruments of Civil Protection to disseminate immediate instructions to the public.
The current wave of wildfires has once again focused attention on this warning system, designed to facilitate a rapid response to situations that may endanger the life or safety of the population.