Photo: Earl Andrew at en.wikipedia · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Riverview: 1 on record, latest by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
Wildfire barely registers for Riverview, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Riverview is ordinary for Canada: 6.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Riverview a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Riverview’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Riverview: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Riverview faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Riverview grades C+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Riverview with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 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 64 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.
Wildfire is rare near Riverview: 0% 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.
The land within 25 km of Riverview burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Riverview’s homes came within 21 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel rises from 1.7% within 5 km of Riverview to 7.6% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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 Riverview 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Riverview 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.
Riverview is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Riverview, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2016 study by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority covers Riverview, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rideau River, Hogs Back to Rideau Falls | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Riverview is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Riverview.
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.
Shaking is Riverview’s 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Riverview loses $0.15, 5 times as much.
Riverview doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Ottawa.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, Riverview 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 Riverview.
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 loss is to Riverview’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Riverview: 6.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the City of Ottawa Health Unit
The survey area of Riverview reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Riverview’s area, at 6.2%, is above the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Riverview with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Riverview can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Riverview, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Riverview’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverview | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Elmvale - Canterbury 8,149 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Old Ottawa East 8,308 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Playfair Park - Guildwood Estates 6,186 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Alta Vista 8,387 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Overbrook 19,953 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Hawthorn Meadows - Sheffield Glen 6,838 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
Nowhere around Riverview burns more: Elmvale - Canterbury, 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 Riverview faces
What to do about the hazards Riverview 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.
- 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
- 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 Riverview’s.
- 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 Riverview.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Riverview’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Riverview takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Riverview
How big is the earthquake risk in Riverview?
Expected earthquake damage in Riverview comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Riverview flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Riverview; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Riverview at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Riverview since 1986 (last in 2014); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Riverview?
Around Riverview, 64 survey homes were tested and 6.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Riverview’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Riverview C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).