Datel helps Spanish municipalities identify unauthorized buildings

On April 15th, a roundtable was held in Madrid on the topic ‘Current Challenges of Urban Planning in Spain’, where the most pressing issues facing contemporary urbanism were analyzed.

Catanova- service developed by Datel Space team in cooperation with the European Space Agency - ESA was introduced. Catanova tool has detected more than 750 unauthorized buildings in pilot projects, allowing municipalities to recover revenue without raising taxes.

The discussion featured the institutional perspective of Ms. Estefanía Jiménez Montes, Deputy Director General of Urban Planning Inspection and Enforcement for the Community of Madrid, and the practical experience of Mr. Carlos Pérez Achiaga, Councilor for Urban Planning in Algete.

"The implementation of new technologies, such as Catanova, represents a significant leap forward for urban planning in our region, perfectly aligning with the Madrid Regional Government's Urban Development Law. Its main value lies in enabling specialists to make better decisions, with more information and legal certainty, always ensuring that human judgment prevails in restoring compliance with urban planning regulations," stated Jiménez Morales.

"Detecting small illegal constructions or developments is very difficult with current methods, since only what is visible on the ground can be observed, and up-to-date information is not always available. With Catanova, we are taking a step forward by cross-referencing cadastral data with aerial images to identify potential irregularities that previously went unnoticed," explained Pérez Achiaga.

For his part, Mateo Ricart, project director at Catanova, emphasized during his presentation the importance of moving from data to direct management: "The important thing isn't the technology, it's the result. We deliver detected, analyzed, and prioritized cases so that technical teams can stop searching and start managing directly." Unlike other services, Catanova offers comprehensive support from satellite detection to final registration in the Land Registry. "The challenge today isn't knowing if there are undeclared buildings, because we all know they're there; the challenge is deciding what to do about them, since the greatest cost for an administration is inaction," Ricart stated.