Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0A flood study covers Rockland: 7 on the national inventory, the newest from South Nation Conservation
Wildfire barely registers for Rockland, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.16 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 6.1% of homes tested in Rockland’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Rockland grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Rockland’s hazards
For Rockland, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Rockland faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rockland grades C+ for hazard risk
For Rockland, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #808 of 866 in Ontario and #2,000 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.
Little of the land around Rockland has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Rockland’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Rockland burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 12 km from Rockland’s homes, none within 5 km.
About as much forest grows next to Rockland’s homes (11% within 5 km) as across 25 km (9.3%).
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Rockland, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list 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.
Rockland shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
Rockland is on the flood map inventory: 7 studies, latest by South Nation Conservation
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rockland: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
7 studies on the inventory touch Rockland, the newest South Nation Conservation’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear Brook Flood Mapping | South Nation Conservation | 2024 | under review · not public |
| Billberry Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2019 | final |
| Becketts Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
| Rideau River, Hogs Back to Rideau Falls | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
| Gatineau-Argenteuil-Collindes-de-l'Outaouais | Municipalité de Pontiac | 2016 | final |
| Cardinal Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
| Ottawa River | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Rockland with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The busiest decade for flood studies around Rockland was the 2010s (6 of 7); they run from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Rockland.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Rockland 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 Rockland’s costliest hazard: $0.16 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Rockland’s $0.16 is about 5.4 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Rockland’s $0.16 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: 14% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Rockland.
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 Rockland.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Rockland: 6.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the The Eastern Ontario Health Unit
Rockland’s area, at 6.1%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Rockland than in most towns in Ontario: 6.1% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
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 Rockland, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Rockland’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Rockland
Alerts for Rockland 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 Rockland 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 Rockland
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rockland | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Thurso 3,439 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Lochaber-Partie-Ouest 1,016 · 12 km | Low | $0.10 | 13% | Yes |
| Cumberland 6,139 · 14 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Plaisance 1,191 · 14 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | None listed |
| Vallée-de-la-Lièvre 15,388 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | Yes |
| L'Ange-Gardien 7,068 · 17 km | Low | $0.095 | 13% | Yes |
Thurso burns a little more than Rockland, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rockland faces
Practical steps for Rockland’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Rockland’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Rockland.
- 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 Rockland.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Rockland takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rockland
How is Rockland’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Rockland C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rockland?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Rockland’s buildings lose $0.16 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Rockland flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Rockland; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Rockland at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Rockland’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Rockland?
6.1% of the 99 homes Health Canada tested around Rockland topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).