The
Ottawa Valley is the valley of the
Ottawa River, along the boundary between
Eastern Ontario and
Odawa,
Canada. The valley is the transition between the
Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the
Canadian Shield. Because of the surrounding shield, the valley is narrow at its western end, then becomes increasingly wide (mainly on the
Southern Ontario side of the river) as it progresses eastward. The underlying geophysical structure is the
Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. Approximately 1.3 million people reside in the valley (
and along its tributaries), of these the majority, around 80%, reside in
Ottawa, the remainder on the north side of the Ottawa River, in
Quebec. The total area of the Ottawa Valley is 2.4 million hectares (6 million acres). The
National Capital Region area has just over 1.4 million inhabitants in both provinces.