Administrative divisions of Spain

Municipal, provincial and autonomous communities and municipal, provincial and autonomous border lines registered in the Central Register of Cartography (RCC) (https://www.ign.es/web/ign/portal/rcc-area-rcc). The geometry inscribed in the RCC corresponds to the interpretation of the legal titles inscribed in the RCC: Limit line records, administrative decisions, court rulings, etc. Some lines or sections of lines may be "provisional", that is, they lack a legal title that guarantees their geometry and therefore their representation in the cartography only responds to the topological need for the closure of municipal polygons. Royal Decree 1545/2007, of 23 November, regulating the National Cartographic System establishes among the functions of the RCC those of registering the official cartography, the territorial delimitations and their variations, and collecting, standardizing and disseminating the official toponymy. Article 20 of this Royal Decree states that the municipal boundary lines, the boundaries of the provinces and the delimitations of the territories of the autonomous communities are part of the Territorial Delimitations and therefore must be registered in the Central Register of Mapping. Likewise, Article 4.1 of the aforementioned Royal Decree establishes that ‘all production of official geographical information and cartography shall be carried out from the Geographical Equipment of National Reference, which shall be composed of (…); by the Territorial Delimitations registered in the Central Register of Cartography (...)’, that is, the territorial delimitations used in the official cartography must be those registered in the RCC. It should be noted that, in general, the geometry with which each line is inscribed in the RCC has a geometric uncertainty around 40 meters, according to experience and contrast with precise specific work carried out by the Geographic Institute on numerous boundary lines. This is a consequence of the inaccuracies of the topographic methods and instruments used at the time by the Geographic Institute for its survey and subsequent mapping on the National Topographic Map, to which must be added those of the processes of digitization of these boundary lines on printed cartography, carried out years later to obtain their digital version. The exception to the above are those lines in which a series of technical and administrative works required by the current state or regional regulations have been developed for the demarcation of the municipal terms, which has allowed the inscription of a more precise geometry.