Photo: Judicieux · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Plateau: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Ville de Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Plateau, 0% of the land 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 is about average around Plateau: 8.8% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Plateau grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Plateau’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Plateau: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Plateau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Plateau: C−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Plateau with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #294 of 507 in Quebec and #2,256 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.
Few fires near Plateau: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Plateau’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Plateau’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Plateau’s homes came within 20 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel rises from 1% within 5 km of Plateau to 24% 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 Quebec · highest of 513
Among the 513 towns in Quebec, Mistissini burns fastest (0.31% a year); Plateau is with the 144 near zero.
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.
Plateau 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.
Plateau is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Ville de Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Plateau: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Plateau the inventory points to Ville de Québec’s 2014 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villes de Québec et de L'Ancienne-Lorette | Ville de Québec | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Plateau is one of them.
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 Plateau.
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 Plateau’s costliest hazard: $0.14 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.14 per $1,000, Plateau carries roughly 4.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Québec, with Plateau one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Plateau’s $0.14 is close to the median in Quebec, $0.14; La Pocatière is highest at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Plateau.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Plateau’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Plateau 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
Around Plateau, 8.8% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Plateau, 8.8% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Plateau’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Plateau as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Plateau
Alerts for Plateau 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 Plateau 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 Plateau’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plateau | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy 14,541 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Louis 15,792 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Cité-Universitaire 22,546 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Cap-Rouge 17,139 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Aéroport 13,630 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Ancienne-Lorette 17,876 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.8% | Yes |
The fire record around L'Aéroport is a touch heavier than Plateau’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 Plateau faces
What to do about the hazards Plateau 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 Plateau’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Plateau’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Plateau.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Plateau is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Plateau
Is Plateau at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Plateau has burned since 1986, the last in 2020, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Plateau flood?
There is flood mapping for Plateau on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Plateau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Plateau C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Plateau?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of 160 homes tested in Plateau’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Plateau?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Plateau’s buildings lose $0.14 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).