We are excited to announce the addition of Roger Rempel, Heather Auld, Neil Comer, Simon Eng and Adam Irawan to Dillon’s Climate Resilience Team.  With the addition of this group, Dillon’s Resiliency Team is now bolstered in our capacity to provide clients informed, quantified decision-critical insight to inform decision-makers and their resilience strategies.  The combined team experience spans engagements across Canada and Internationally (e.g. Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Asia).

The new team’s experience includes:

• providing sector-leading thought leadership in standards and guidelines development;
• applied climate science to inform engineering design;
• critical asset risk analysis and management (buildings, stormwater systems, wastewater systems, drinking water systems, flood control infrastructure, transportation assets, electrical distribution and transmission systems, shoreline infrastructure etc.) ;
• corporate climate risk management; and
• integration of climate change into community sustainability, human health, agricultural and environmental management.

This specialized team includes climate scientists, professional engineers and software developers with a unique blend of expertise in applied meteorology, climate and climate change science, professional engineering and risk assessment.  Their combined skills will provide key sectors with the insight and data to strategically manage their emerging risks in a changing climate.

Members of this team have led and served as primary contributors to the development of CSA Infrastructure Adaptation guidelines, including the lead for different editions of the CSA PLUS 4013 (2010, 2012, 2019) Technical guide: Development, interpretation and use of rainfall intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) information - Guideline for Canadian water resources practitioners; completed the most recent update to existing rainfall IDF design information used in Ontario and developed alternate regional frequency approaches for IDF information (incorporating radar climatology); and serve on the Climate Loads Task Force of the Canadian Codes Commission 3 decades).

Additionally, the team has authored many internationally peer-reviewed publications on climate change extremes, downscaling, and adaptation tools. They have also served as invited advisors and experts for committees of the IPCC, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO).

Team Bios: 

Roger Rempel, B.SC., P.ENG., FEC, IRP

Roger Rempel is based in Winnipeg and comes to Dillon having previously held the role of Director of the Climate Group.  Roger is a senior environmental engineer and certified Infrastructure Resilience Professional (IRP) with over 25 years of experience in environmental assessment, climate change vulnerability assessment, risk assessment, environmental systems modeling and stakeholder engagement. Roger is a Past-President of ACEC-Manitoba and is a current member of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Reducing Natural Disaster Risk in Canada, tasked with identifying opportunities to improve disaster resilience in Canada through integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation research and practice.

Heather Auld, M.Sc., Prof. Meteorologist

Heather Auld is based in the Greater Toronto Area and comes to Dillon after holding the role of Principal Climate Scientist at another consultancy. She has 40 years of experience in the fields of climate, meteorology and climate change adaptation.  For much of three decades, Heather extensively researched and developed engineering climate and climate change design values supporting the National Building Code of Canada, Canadian Standards Association, BNQ and ISO standards for extreme rainfall, hydrological structures, energy and electrical systems and Arctic infrastructure. She has supported many PIEVC engineering risk assessments for different types of infrastructure across Canada and internationally. Heather has been invited to serve on various international expert teams and delegations, including the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), World Meteorological Organization, U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, World Federation of Engineering Organizations and served on Canadian delegations to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.

Neil Comer, Ph.D.

Dr. Comer has worked in the private sector as an applications engineer/instructor (Weather Services International), in the public sector with the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) and the Adaptation and Impacts Research Section of Environment Canada (EC), and, most recently, in academia (Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Physical Sciences Dept.). At EC, Dr. Comer shared responsibility for developing the Atmospheric Hazards network, and the Canadian Climate Change Scenarios Network (CCCSN), a set of on-line applications supporting the validation and selection of climate change projections for specific climate parameters and geographical locations. Dr. Comer previously served as climate science advisor to the Ontario Climate Change Consortium and was a reviewer for the IPCC AR5 SREX Report. Dr. Comer provides analytical services and training to a wide range of sectors affected by emerging climate change impacts, including agriculture, human health, community wellness, extreme weather event response and infrastructure resilience.

Simon Eng, B. Eng., Cert. Met.

Simon Eng is based in the Greater Toronto Area and has combined degrees in civil engineering and meteorology. Simon work focuses on identifying the ramifications emerging from the intersection of  hazards in climate and weather with the built environment. Simon has conducted detailed assessments of existing codes, standards and other guidance, as they relate to the interaction of climate and weather with buildings and infrastructure, addressing climatic design loads and climate change adaptation measures. Through his roles as a forecast assistant and researcher of historically significant weather events, Simon also has experience with public outreach and other stakeholder engagement, including on-site forensic damage investigations immediately following severe weather events.

Adam Irawan, B.Sc. Hons Software Engineering

Adam is a graduate in Computer Science, specializing in Software Engineering, who has worked for Environment Canada, IBM, as well as privately consulting with University of Toronto and University of Prince Edward Island before his tenure at RSI. His past projects include working with compiler backend optimization teams, agent based modeling development and developing large scale climate model data analysis tools. He is experienced in server and network administration, and has extensive skills in numerous programming languages, development frameworks and platforms.