Photo: Chris Woodrich · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Walkerville: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex
Burn scars are few around Walkerville, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.008% a year). Seismic risk in Walkerville sits near the middle: $0.019 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Walkerville grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Walkerville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Walkerville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Walkerville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Walkerville grades C+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Walkerville’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: #682 of 866 in Ontario and #1,870 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Walkerville has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Walkerville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.008% a year keeps Walkerville in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Walkerville’s homes came within 6.0 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel is scarce around Walkerville: 0% of the land within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km.
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
The land around Walkerville burns at 0.008% a year, the 26th highest rate of 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops it 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.
Some fire is mapped around Walkerville, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex has mapped flooding for Walkerville (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Walkerville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex studied flooding in an area that includes Walkerville (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essex Region | Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Walkerville 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Walkerville 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Walkerville $0.019 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Walkerville’s ground: $0.019 against a typical $0.030, 0.6 times.
Walkerville shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Windsor.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Walkerville expects less, $0.019, and Alexandria the most, $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.
Earthquakes cost less around Walkerville than in 66% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 model counts damage to Walkerville’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
14% of homes tested around Walkerville are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Walkerville’s survey area reads 14% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Walkerville than in most towns in Ontario: 14% 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.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Walkerville among them; 4.6% 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Walkerville only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Walkerville
Alerts for Walkerville 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 Walkerville 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 Walkerville
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walkerville | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| South Central 10,392 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | None listed |
| City Centre 10,269 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| South Walkerville 6,129 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | None listed |
| East Windsor 20,876 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| River West 13,940 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| Remington Park 5,783 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | None listed |
The fire record around City Centre is a touch heavier than Walkerville’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Walkerville faces
What to do about the hazards Walkerville 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
- 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 Walkerville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Walkerville’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Walkerville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Walkerville’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Walkerville
How big is the earthquake risk in Walkerville?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Walkerville $0.019 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Walkerville?
Around Walkerville, 195 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Walkerville flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Walkerville; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Walkerville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Walkerville C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Walkerville at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Walkerville since 1986 (last in 2010); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the 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).