Photo: Gaétan Veillette · CC BY-SA 4.0Shawville faces more hazards than 87% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Shawville’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.11 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Shawville grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Shawville’s hazards
For Shawville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Shawville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Shawville: D
Earthquake risk and radon make Shawville’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. The radon share rests on 63 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.
Few fires near Shawville: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Shawville’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.001% burned a year, Shawville is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
No fire has burned within 5 km of Shawville’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 11 km away.
Forest fuel covers 11% of the land close to Shawville and 21% across 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 Quebec · highest of 514
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Shawville ranks 136th of 514, at 0.001% a year.
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.
Shawville is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
No flood study is listed for Shawville
Flood studies whose area touches Shawville, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Shawville; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Shawville has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 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 Shawville.
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.”
High seismic risk in Shawville: $0.11 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shawville’s $0.11 is about 3.6 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
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Shawville, at $0.11, is below the median of $0.14.
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: 25% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Shawville.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Shawville is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Shawville: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Shawville’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Outaouais health region, Shawville included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Shawville than in most towns in Quebec: 13% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 4.8% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Shawville sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
Neighbouring homes in Shawville can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Shawville
Alerts for Shawville 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Shawville are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Shawville’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Among its neighbours Shawville has the most fire on record (low); Clarendon follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Shawville faces
Practical steps for Shawville’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Shawville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Shawville’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Shawville, 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Shawville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Shawville
How is Shawville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Shawville’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Shawville at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Shawville’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.
How big is the earthquake risk in Shawville?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Shawville.
Does Shawville flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Shawville (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Shawville?
13% of the 63 homes Health Canada tested around Shawville 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).