sept-2017

44 45 shut down half an hour later by the Ministry of the Environment because it’s a gusty day and the sour gas immediately created a hazardous situa- tion. “In fact, we developed a methodology for the oil and gas industry that has since found a much wider range of uses. The City of Calgary found out about our detailed meteorological prediction system and they mandated that any development in the City needed to use it. The story begins several years ago, when a strong but unexpected wind came through the city, and contractors hadn’t had a chance to tie down all their materials. Sheeting and plywood flew off a building under construction and killed a little girl. So, the City said, ‘No more.We need a better warning system so job sites can tie down their equipment, and increase safety.’ Thus, our predic- tive method is used in the construction industry. Part of its value is that it’s so specific.We iden- tify that the winds are coming, their speed and timing, and what they’ll be carrying, whether it’s rain, sleet, snow, or hail. And, we can be very spe- cific about location: if you’re building a building on a particular corner, we can tell you what the wind is going to be like on that corner, two or three days in advance. “The methodology has moved from oil and RWDI gas to construction and now to ski resorts in western Canada. They are using it for avalanche and snow prediction. The movie industry is also using our service increasingly to help them with scheduling outdoor scenes; delays are very costly, so we help them avoid scheduling outside scenes during periods with inclement weather. Our method is more powerful than any meteoro- logical predictive method we are aware of any- where in the world, and that’s why it’s gaining so much traction.” Soligo says that RWDI’s fastest growing area is in building science: “A perfect example is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. So far, it is the tallest building in the world.We did preliminary work on the structure and provided some feedback into both the external shape of the building and its orien- tation. Orientation was critical: by rotating the whole structure about 18 degrees from where it was originally going to be positioned on the site, they saved over 20 percent in wind loading. That made the difference: it got them to the height that they needed to get to be the tallest building in the world. “We also do a lot of sustainability work, includ- ing energy modeling and day lighting - looking at the reactivity of materials and how they might affect the environment from a glare perspec-