
Situated in the Ottawa Valley, Kanata is located about 22 km (14 mi) west-southwest of Downtown Ottawa along Highway 417 at a latitude of 45°18′ North and a longitude of 75°55′ West, with an area of 139 km2 (54 sq mi). Its northern end is just to the west of the Ottawa River.
To the east, Kanata is separated from the former City of Nepean by the National Capital Commission’s Greenbelt. The community of Bells Corners borders the inner side of the Greenbelt. Bells Corners is itself a hi-tech suburb that was established around 1950, and was home to such Canadian technology icons as Computing Devices Canada, the Ottawa-based defense electronics company (bought by General Dynamics), which blazed the trail for later defense technology firms in what would later be known as Silicon Valley North, or Kanata.
To the south of Kanata is Stittsville, Ontario. First a farming community, then a village, then part of the township of Goulbourn, Stittsville is now a large suburb which was amalgamated into the new City of Ottawa in 2001, and largely employed by the hi-tech industry.
Further to the south of Kanata is the former village of Richmond, Ontario, which pre-dated what is now the City of Ottawa.