Tortosa

Can you build a house on rustic land?

Catalonia allows no new houses on rustic land. Restoring an existing or listed building is the way.

DL 1/2010, art. 47. A town plan can be stricter.

Plan in force: Plan General (a full town plan), from 2007. The region's planning viewer ↗

The national urban information system (SIU) maps the land class for 99% of the municipality.

Only the town hall can confirm it, in writing: ask for a certificado urbanístico.

Is there water?

IGME records 123 wells and boreholes in Tortosa. Half of the 121 with a depth found water at 30–84 m. 2 springs are recorded.

Ground: 36% porous aquifer, medium productivity; 31% karstic or fissured aquifer, high productivity; 17% low permeability, local groundwater only; 16% porous aquifer, high productivity.

Choosing where to drill takes a hydrogeologist.

What to watch for

• 3 fires since 2016 reached the municipality: 121 ha in all, the latest in 2024.
• 9.5% of the municipality lies in the 100-year flood zone; 9.5% in the 500-year one.
• 9.5% of the municipality is preferential flow zone, where new building is generally banned.
• 31% of the municipality is Natura 2000: new works need the region's consent.
• 31% of the municipality is a protected natural area, whose plan limits what can be done.
• Not a radon zone.

Living here

• 4G reaches 100% of homes; fibre 86%. Averages for the municipality.
• Rain: 452 mm a year (1971–2000), about 386 by 2041–2070.
• Summer highs: 29.9 °C, about 33.1 °C by 2041–2070.
• Frost days: 3 a year, about 1 by 2041–2070.

Around it

L'Aldea · Camarles · L'Ampolla · Aldover · Tivenys · Masdenverge · Santa Bàrbara · El Perelló