Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainEarthquake risk in Birdland runs 16 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.47 per $1,000 a year
Burn scars are few around Birdland, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.003% a year). In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Birdland a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Birdland’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Birdland: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Birdland faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Birdland: B
Seismic risk and radon set Birdland’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 70 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Birdland has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Birdland’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Birdland’s 0.003% is in the low band.
Fire has stayed at least 13 km from Birdland’s homes since 1986.
The forest starts beyond town: 3.9% of the land within 5 km of Birdland’s homes is forest fuel, against 28% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in British Columbia · highest of 255
Oliver tops the 255 towns in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Birdland, at 0.003%, comes 191st.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Birdland is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or higher.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
2 flood studies cover Birdland, the newest from City of Coquitlam
Flood studies whose area touches Birdland, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Birdland, the newest City of Coquitlam’s from 2017, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coquitlam, Fraser, Pitt Rivers Floodplain Mapping | City of Coquitlam | 2017 | final |
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
76% of towns in British Columbia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Birdland has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Birdland to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Birdland $0.47 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 15.7 times the typical $0.030: Birdland’s $0.47 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in British Columbia: Birdland’s $0.47 against a median of $0.36, with Duncan highest at $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Birdland is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 1.6% rank higher.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
The model counts damage to Birdland’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: the city of Surrey
Little radon around Birdland: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Birdland’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Birdland it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Birdland’s band, which holds 37%.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
One home in Birdland can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Fraser South health region, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Birdland
Alerts for Birdland come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Evacuation orders for Birdland come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Birdland’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birdland | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Port Mann 5,988 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Guildford 14,663 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Johnston Heights 30,971 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Whalley 52,642 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Fraser Heights 17,688 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Bridgeview 3,511 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Birdland has the most fire on record (low); Port Mann follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Birdland faces
Practical steps for Birdland’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Birdland is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Birdland’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Birdland’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Birdland.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Birdland
How big is the earthquake risk in Birdland?
Expected earthquake damage in Birdland comes to $0.47 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Birdland?
The area’s survey found 0% of 70 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Birdland.
Is Birdland at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Birdland’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
How is Birdland’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Birdland B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Birdland flood?
There is flood mapping for Birdland on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).