Hazards in Kanata Lakes: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 6.2% of tested homes
Burn scars are few around Kanata Lakes, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Kanata Lakes grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Kanata Lakes’s hazards
For Kanata Lakes, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kanata Lakes faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kanata Lakes grades C+ for hazard risk
For Kanata Lakes, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 64 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Kanata Lakes has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kanata Lakes’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.002% of the land around Kanata Lakes each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Kanata Lakes’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 17 km off.
Close to Kanata Lakes there is little to burn (3.8% forest fuel within 5 km), but 12% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Kanata Lakes ranks 54th of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.002% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 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.
Kanata Lakes 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Kanata Lakes
Flood studies whose area touches Kanata Lakes, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Kanata Lakes, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario, 69% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Kanata Lakes.
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 Kanata Lakes 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.”
Shaking is Kanata Lakes’ costliest hazard: $0.15 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.
Roughly 5 times the typical $0.030: Kanata Lakes’ $0.15 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, Kanata Lakes is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 15% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Kanata Lakes.
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 Kanata Lakes.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Ottawa
Radon about average around Kanata Lakes: 6.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Kanata Lakes’ area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the City of Ottawa Health Unit, Kanata Lakes included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Kanata Lakes than in most towns in Ontario: 6.2% against 4%.
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 Kanata Lakes, 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.
A low area share in Kanata Lakes 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).
Where to get warnings in Kanata Lakes
Alerts for Kanata Lakes 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 Kanata Lakes 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 Kanata Lakes
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanata Lakes | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Beaverbrook 6,762 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Katimavik-Hazeldean 11,437 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Brookside - Briarbrook - Morgans Grant 15,509 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Stittsville North 13,331 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Glen Cairn 14,020 · 5.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Stittsville East 10,482 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
Nowhere around Kanata Lakes burns more: Beaverbrook, 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 Kanata Lakes faces
Practical steps for Kanata Lakes’ 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Kanata Lakes sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kanata Lakes’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Kanata Lakes floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Kanata Lakes, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kanata Lakes
How big is the earthquake risk in Kanata Lakes?
About $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Kanata Lakes.
How is Kanata Lakes’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kanata Lakes grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Kanata Lakes?
The area’s survey found 6.2% of 64 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Kanata Lakes.
Does Kanata Lakes flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Kanata Lakes, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Kanata Lakes at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Kanata Lakes’ low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
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).