Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Valley Park: 1 on record, latest by Hamilton Conservation Authority
For Valley Park, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.044 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Valley Park, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of homes tested in Valley Park’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Valley Park grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Valley Park’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Valley Park: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Valley Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Valley Park: B+
For Valley Park, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #494 of 866 in Ontario and #1,255 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Valley Park has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Valley Park’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Valley Park burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Only 0.6% of the land within 25 km of Valley Park is forest fuel, and 0.2% close in.
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 Ontario · highest of 871
Little or nothing burns around Valley Park in a typical year; 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads at 0.16%.
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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Valley Park is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
Hamilton Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Valley Park (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Valley Park: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Hamilton Conservation Authority holds the flood mapping that covers Valley Park (2025), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hill Creek | Hamilton Conservation Authority | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Valley Park has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Valley Park floods.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Valley Park: $0.044 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.5 times the typical $0.030: Valley Park’s $0.044 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Valley Park’s $0.044 is close to the median in Ontario, $0.043; Alexandria is highest at $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Valley Park sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% are 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Valley Park’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Hamilton
Radon about average around Valley Park: 5% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Valley Park’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 5% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Valley Park has 5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Valley Park, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Valley Park; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the City of Hamilton Health Unit)
Weather and fire alerts for Valley Park
Alerts for Valley Park 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Valley Park to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Valley Park
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Valley Park (low), with Albion next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Valley Park faces
Practical steps for Valley Park’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Valley Park’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Valley Park.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Valley Park is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Valley Park’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Valley Park
Is radon a problem in Valley Park?
The area’s survey found 5% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Valley Park.
How is Valley Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Valley Park grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Valley Park flood?
There is flood mapping for Valley Park on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Valley Park at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Valley Park since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How big is the earthquake risk in Valley Park?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Valley Park’s buildings lose $0.044 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).