PlaceDossier / Questions
Has there been a landslide near this property?
Geologists keep a database of landslides known to have happened in Canada, from published inventories and from mapping on satellite images and lidar. A report lists the records within 5 km of the lot, the nearest first, with each one's kind and date, and flags a slide on or next to the lot.
The report opens at this answer, with the lot drawn on the map and every other check alongside. A PID (on the tax notice or title) always finds the lot; an address works when it's an exact match.
What the answer means
- What a record is
- A point where a slide is known to have started: a debris flow down a creek, a rock fall onto a road, a slump in a river bank. Its kind and date are mostly worked out from images, so treat them as a first look.
- What it isn't
- Not a hazard map. It doesn't say how likely a slide is, and no record nearby doesn't mean stable ground: some parts of BC (the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, recent burn areas) are mapped in far more detail than others.
- Fans and creeks
- Debris flows run kilometres down a channel and spread on the fan at its mouth, so a lot on a fan or below a steep slope can be reached by a slide that started far away.
- After a wildfire
- Burned slopes shed debris flows in heavy rain for several years after a fire.
- Local hazard maps
- Many local governments map steep-slope and debris-flow hazard areas and require a geotechnical report before building there. Ask whether the lot is in one.
A landslide record is a fact about the past near a lot, not an assessment of the lot. Confirm with the local government and a geotechnical engineer before you buy or build.
Source: Preliminary Canadian Landslide Database, version 14.0 (May 2026), Brideau et al. (CC BY 4.0).
Where the most slides are recorded
15,864 records fall inside BC's municipalities and electoral areas; 218 of the 319 places have at least one.
| Place | Records | Commonest kinds |
|---|---|---|
| Thompson-Nicola, Electoral Area I (Blue Sky Country) | 1,044 | 763 debris flows, 58 earth slides |
| Peace River, Electoral Area B | 796 | 373 earth slides, 114 rock rotational slides |
| Fraser-Fort George, Electoral Area H | 713 | 247 earth slides, 154 rock slides |
| Fraser Valley, Electoral Area B | 657 | 307 debris flows, 97 debris floods |
| Strathcona, Electoral Area A | 529 | 215 debris flows, 204 debris avalanches |
| North Coast, Electoral Area E | 471 | 284 debris avalanches, 101 debris flows |
| Alberni-Clayoquot, Electoral Area A | 434 | 264 debris avalanches, 115 debris flows |
| Fraser Valley, Electoral Area A | 391 | 157 debris flows, 60 earth slides |
| Northern Rockies | 390 | 107 earth slides, 54 rock rotational slides |
| Central Coast, Electoral Area A | 379 | 175 debris slides, 82 debris avalanches |
| Peace River, Electoral Area E | 366 | 199 earth slides, 34 rock slides |
| Thompson-Nicola, Electoral Area N (Beautiful Nicola Valley - South) | 322 | 146 debris flows, 72 debris floods |
Counts of recorded slides, not a measure of risk: big rural areas hold more slopes, and the areas mapped in detail on lidar (the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, recent burn areas) hold more records. Each BC place page gives its own count.
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