Photo: A J Butler · CC BY 3.0Pioneer Park is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Grand River Conservation Authority
Around Pioneer Park, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.022 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Pioneer Park, near the typical $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Pioneer Park grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Pioneer Park’s hazards
For Pioneer Park, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Pioneer 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 Pioneer Park: A−
The grade weighs Pioneer Park’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #237 of 866 in Ontario and #594 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Pioneer Park: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Pioneer Park’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Pioneer Park each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest makes up 2.9% of the land within 5 km of Pioneer Park and 3.8% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
Near-zero burning puts Pioneer Park with 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario, far below Sioux Lookout 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Pioneer Park, burning rounds to zero.
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.
Grand River Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Pioneer Park (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pioneer Park: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Grand River Conservation Authority holds the flood mapping that covers Pioneer Park (2018), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand River Regulatory Floodplain | Grand River Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Pioneer Park has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Pioneer Park.
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 Pioneer Park $0.022 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Pioneer Park’s $0.022 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.7 times as much).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Kitchener, Pioneer Park included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Pioneer Park’s $0.022 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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.
Pioneer Park sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 61% 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).
For Pioneer Park the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Pioneer Park: 4% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Pioneer Park’s survey area reads 4% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Pioneer Park doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Waterloo Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Pioneer Park’s area, at 4%, is close to the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Pioneer Park, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Pioneer Park can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Pioneer Park
Alerts for Pioneer 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. |
Evacuation orders for Pioneer Park 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)
Hazards in the places around Pioneer Park
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Park | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Doon South 15,044 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Pioneer Tower West 4,122 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Trillium Industrial Park 3,420 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Huron South 5,555 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Country Hills 4,561 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Vanier 15,686 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
Nowhere around Pioneer Park burns more: Doon South, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pioneer Park faces
What to do about the hazards Pioneer Park faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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. For Pioneer Park, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Pioneer Park.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Pioneer Park takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Pioneer Park’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pioneer Park
How is Pioneer Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Pioneer Park A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Pioneer Park at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Pioneer Park since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pioneer Park?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Pioneer Park’s buildings lose $0.022 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Pioneer Park flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Pioneer Park; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Pioneer Park?
Around Pioneer Park, 101 survey homes were tested and 4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).