Photo: SimonP at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Sandy Hill is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Sandy Hill’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% 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). In Health Canada’s survey, 6.2% of homes tested in Sandy Hill’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Sandy Hill grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Sandy Hill’s hazards
For Sandy Hill, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sandy Hill faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sandy Hill grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Sandy Hill’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Sandy Hill: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Sandy Hill’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Sandy Hill burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Sandy Hill’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 19 km out.
Forest fuel rises from 0.4% within 5 km of Sandy Hill to 8.3% 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
At 0.001% a year, Sandy Hill is near the top in Ontario: 83rd of 871, behind Sioux Lookout (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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Sandy Hill among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
2 flood studies cover Sandy Hill, the newest from Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sandy Hill: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The newest of 2 studies covering Sandy Hill is Rideau Valley Conservation Authority’s, from 2016; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rideau River, Hogs Back to Rideau Falls | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
| Ottawa River | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Sandy Hill included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Sandy Hill 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.
Shaking is Sandy Hill’s costliest hazard: $0.15 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Sandy Hill’s $0.15 is about 5 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Ottawa, Sandy Hill included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Sandy Hill’s $0.15 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 15% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Sandy Hill.
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 Sandy Hill.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
6.2% of homes tested around Sandy Hill are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Around Sandy Hill, 6.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 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 Sandy Hill has 6.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Sandy Hill, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
Whatever Sandy Hill’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the City of Ottawa Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Sandy Hill
Alerts for Sandy Hill 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 Sandy Hill to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Sandy Hill’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy Hill | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Lowertown East 6,996 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Lowertown West 5,947 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Old Ottawa East 8,308 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Vanier South 7,259 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| New Edinburgh 5,728 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Centretown 32,035 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
Nowhere around Sandy Hill burns more: Lowertown East, 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 Sandy Hill faces
Practical steps for Sandy Hill’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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sandy Hill, 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sandy Hill is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sandy Hill’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Sandy Hill.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sandy Hill
Is radon a problem in Sandy Hill?
6.2% of the 64 homes Health Canada tested around Sandy Hill topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Sandy Hill’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sandy Hill grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sandy Hill?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Sandy Hill’s buildings lose $0.15 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Sandy Hill flood?
There is flood mapping for Sandy Hill on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Sandy Hill at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Sandy Hill’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2014), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).