Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Cité-Universitaire: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Ville de Québec
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Cité-Universitaire, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Cité-Universitaire is ordinary for Canada: 8.8% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Cité-Universitaire a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Cité-Universitaire’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cité-Universitaire: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cité-Universitaire faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cité-Universitaire: C−
Earthquake risk and radon make Cité-Universitaire’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Cité-Universitaire: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Cité-Universitaire’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Cité-Universitaire’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Cité-Universitaire’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 20 km away.
Homes in Cité-Universitaire sit on open or built-up ground (0.8% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 23%.
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 Quebec · highest of 513
Near-zero burning puts Cité-Universitaire with 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini at 0.31%.
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.
Cité-Universitaire 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.
Ville de Québec has mapped flooding for Cité-Universitaire (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Cité-Universitaire: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Ville de Québec studied flooding in an area that includes Cité-Universitaire (2014); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villes de Québec et de L'Ancienne-Lorette | Ville de Québec | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Cité-Universitaire among them, below the 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Cité-Universitaire.
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 Cité-Universitaire’s costliest hazard: $0.14 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Cité-Universitaire’s $0.14 is about 4.6 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Québec, with Cité-Universitaire one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Cité-Universitaire’s $0.14 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $0.48.
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: 20% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Cité-Universitaire.
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 Cité-Universitaire’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).
8.8% of homes tested around Cité-Universitaire are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Capitale-Nationale health region: radon tests
Cité-Universitaire’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Cité-Universitaire’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Cité-Universitaire’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Cité-Universitaire as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Cité-Universitaire
Alerts for Cité-Universitaire 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 Cité-Universitaire 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)
How Cité-Universitaire’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cité-Universitaire | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Sillery 13,950 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Plateau 14,176 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis 15,792 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Sacrement 10,650 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Duberger—Les Saules 27,419 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy 14,541 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Cité-Universitaire (low); Sillery comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cité-Universitaire faces
Practical steps for Cité-Universitaire’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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Cité-Universitaire’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Cité-Universitaire.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Cité-Universitaire takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Cité-Universitaire’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cité-Universitaire
Is Cité-Universitaire at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Cité-Universitaire’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Cité-Universitaire flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Cité-Universitaire; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Cité-Universitaire?
8.8% of the 160 homes Health Canada tested around Cité-Universitaire topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cité-Universitaire?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Cité-Universitaire $0.14 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Cité-Universitaire’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cité-Universitaire grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).