Photo: James Mann from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada · CC BY 2.0High radon around Riverview: 20% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Fire seldom reaches Riverview: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.003% a year). NRCan expects $0.031 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Riverview, near the typical $0.030. Riverview grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Riverview’s hazards
For Riverview, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Riverview faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Riverview: C−
Seismic risk and radon set Riverview’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #21 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,303 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Riverview: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Riverview’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.003% burned a year, Riverview is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Riverview’s homes came within 5.9 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel covers 44% of the land close to Riverview and 71% across 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 New Brunswick · highest of 60
Riverview burns at 0.003% a year, 27th of 60 towns in New Brunswick; the leader, Tracadie, reaches 0.28%.
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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Riverview reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank 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.
Riverview is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Flood studies whose area touches Riverview, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Riverview is Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Riverview is one of the 93% of towns in New Brunswick with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Riverview’s homes are at risk.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Riverview: $0.031 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
With $0.031 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Riverview sits right at the typical $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in New Brunswick: Riverview’s $0.031 against $0.036; St. Stephen reaches $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Riverview sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 48% expect more shaking damage.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Riverview.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
20% of homes tested around Riverview are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Riverview: 20% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Riverview, 20% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 3.7% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Riverview is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are higher.
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.
A low area share in Riverview doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Region 1 health region
Where to get warnings in Riverview
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Riverview; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
For fires near Riverview, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Riverview
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverview | Low | $0.031 | 20% | Yes |
| Moncton 102,378 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.040 | 20% | Yes |
| Coverdale 5,167 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.031 | 20% | Yes |
| Dieppe 35,986 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.033 | 20% | Yes |
| Moncton 12,238 · 14 km | Low | $0.033 | 20% | Yes |
| Hillsborough 1,569 · 15 km | Low | $0.022 | 20% | Yes |
| Hillsborough 1,414 · 18 km | Low | $0.022 | 20% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Riverview has the most fire on record (low); Moncton follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Riverview faces
Practical steps for Riverview’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Riverview’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Riverview, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Riverview until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Riverview without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Riverview
Does Riverview flood?
A flood study covers Riverview on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Riverview?
The area’s survey found 20% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Riverview.
Is Riverview at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Riverview’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Riverview?
Expected earthquake damage in Riverview comes to $0.031 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Riverview’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Riverview’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).