Comarcal

Comarcal is an adjective used in Spanish and Catalan to denote something related to a comarca, a traditional territorial division that groups several municipalities. The exact status and functions of a comarca vary by region, but in general a comarca aims to facilitate regional coordination and service provision beyond the level of a single town. The term derives from comarca with the -al suffix indicating relation.

In Spain, comarcas are especially prominent in Catalonia, where comarques are formal administrative units with elected bodies—consell comarcal—that coordinate areas such as social services, infrastructure, culture, and environmental planning for the municipalities within the comarca. In other parts of the country, comarcas exist as historical or statistical regions used for planning and coordination; the degree of formal government varies, with some areas having limited or no autonomous comarca institutions, while others operate through inter-municipal councils or similar arrangements.

The word comarcal is widely used in public administration and everyday language to refer to services and institutions that operate on a comarca level, such as hospitals (hospital comarcal), regional councils, or transport and waste management programs. In addition to Spain, the concept and term are used in other Spanish-speaking contexts to describe regional or county-level governance structures, though the exact configurations differ.