Catalog of earthquake damage in Spain: a tool for disaster risk reduction

This publication describes a tool known as the Catalogue of Earthquake Damage in Spain (CDTE in Spanish), which is intended to provide a unified record for damage caused by earthquakes with a seismic strength of greater than or equal to 6 in Spanish territory.

Given that the overriding objective of the CDTE is to catalogue all the damage caused by earthquakes in Spain, the information it covers has been grouped into two broad blocks according to content. The first block, named general data, features information on the seismic data, and the sources and documentation on the event. The second, damage by municipality, offers the data available on personal injury and damage to households, infrastructure, agriculture and livestock, industry, basic services, and equipment that is caused by each event.

In early 2015 the Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Emergencies (DGPCE), the National Geographic Institute (IGN), the National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG) and the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), which are public institutions that have a long track record of mutual cooperation, took the first steps towards undertaking a new joint project that materialised in the form of a partnership agreement on 7 May 2015 with the objective of compiling a Catalogue of Earthquake Damage in Spain (CDTE).

The project seeks to create a tool to set up a single database to reflect the damage caused by earthquakes in Spain. A database of this kind is in harmony with the most recent trends in disaster risk reduction as established under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. This framework makes it a priority to understand disaster risk through systematically evaluating, logging, sharing and making the public aware of the loss caused by disasters. In this way it becomes possible to understand the economic, social, health, educational, environmental and cultural heritage impact within the context of information on the vulnerability and level of exposure arising from threats in relation to specific events.