Minimization of the territorial impact of housing on non-developable land in areas affected by flood hazard

The occupation of rural land by dwellings, mainly secondaries and in most cases irregulars, has been a widespread practice in Spain, and in particular in the Comunitat Valenciana. The current regulations on spatial and urban planning and landscape want to provide a solution through special procedures to solve many environmental and urban problems posed by houses built on rural land outside of planning. One of the conflicts that arise with the new regulations is how to manage the minimization of the territorial impact of these homes affected by a floodplain area, in which the owners are required to adopt measures to reduce vulnerability and self-protection for existing buildings, considering the urban planning regulations of the Territorial Action Plan on flood risk prevention in the Comunitat Valenciana (PATRICOVA), whose application began in 2003. In this article, the first thing analyzed is the dimension of the problem using geographic information systems to overlay cartographies and the studies of the procedures and standards involved. Then, a reflection on how to articulate both norms to suppress the conflicts that seem to exist is presented