If there’s proof needed that we’re living in the future, the most unlikely resource of Midland’s water and wastewater department has provided that example.
Set on a table in the Wastewater Treatment Centre at 200 Bay Street is a square metallic frame, on top of which rests the ‘Midland 3D interactive model’ – a precision-cut foam representation of the town with an overhead projection system that adds colour and digital mapping on top of the terrain.
Water and wastewater services manager André Pepin told MidlandToday that the project was funded by the department with the intent to have interactive training along with a public education component.
“It was also intended as a great way to display the innovation within the department,” said Pepin. “It was created for less than $5,000. It was largely created by two team members, in about 16 hours. It should last several years with no maintenance. The only physical pieces that may need replacing are the projector bulbs.”
Those two members would be Guilherme (Will) Vieira Cerqueira and Stephane Marinier, employees with the water and wastewater department.
“I’m new here, even for Midland,” said Vieira Cerqueira. “I said, ‘I don’t know the land.’ I asked the guys to bring the maps for me, and I said, ‘Maybe a model will help’. I asked André if it was a good idea, and he said, ‘Amazing, let’s start it.’
“Also the foam – I didn’t even know that a company could cut it and make a 3D model,” Vieira Cerqueira added.
With precision geodata of a rough 8,000 square-kilometre area, a CNC laser cutter meticulously carved away a foam block until the map of Midland remained. The team had received a digital version prior to the final product, and requested an elevation exaggeration at a factor of three to accentuate the varying contours, from the waterline elevation of 175 metres up to 300 metres in the highest part of town.
During a demonstration at the treatment centre, Pepin pointed out lands adjacent to Vindin Street, “where most of the water for Midland comes in, because it’s all natural creek that runs through here.”
Pepin also pointed out that the elevation of Little Lake (200 metres) was higher than Midland Bay, easily visible with the 3D model, explaining the challenges of pumping water upward rather than downward. “The original intent was to display the intricacies of our water distribution system concerning elevation and pressure requirements; primarily used for internal- and external- facing education.”
With just the model and two projectors, the exhibit is incredibly mobile as was witnessed during its introduction at the town’s recent public works event Public Works Palooza. Beneath a tent at the corner of the fairground, rainy conditions were ideal to view the clearly visible projection which alternated between displays of sewer pipes, future construction projects and more.
“The projection display allows for an infinite number of situational displays concerning the landscape of Midland,” Pepin noted. “It allows everyone to get a more physical sense of change to the landscape of Midland as compared to looking at something on a 2D plane. Visualizing community growth, traffic, GIS, bus routes, snowplowing, et cetera. The limit is creativity.”
According to Pepin, tech-inundated children were less impressed than the adults who visited the display, able to see the full scope of their town from that vantage for perhaps the first time.
Town spokesperson Brittany Carlisle told MidlandToday: “We discussed having the diorama brought to town hall (575 Dominion Avenue) for the next couple of weeks. This will ensure no one misses out on this extremely educational tool.”
The possibilities extend far beyond public works mapping. Perhaps someday, we will even see Lakey the Lake Monster overlaid on the map – which, according to director Nahanni Born of the Huronia Museum, is Midland's very own cryptid (fictitiously) residing in Little Lake.