Natural hazards in the Portuguese legislation

Abstract

Portuguese legislation about the environment, untill1998, happily published in one only book, never refers natural hazards. References to these problems can be founded in the texts about national ecologic reservation (REN) or about municipal development plans (PDM). That is the case of some limitations to build in the proximity of rivers, because of the collective fruition of those areas, and near the sea, in order to protect dunes and cliffs. We can find, also, some indications about the prevention of forest fires. However, Portuguese government organized a system of civil protection based on three levels (local, regional and national) in order to prevent hazards and to manage crisis.