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The article discusses the effectiveness of twinning methodologies in building the research, development, and public policy capabilities of developing countries. A research project titled "Multipurpose Forestry in a Changing Society" financed by the Danish Development Cooperation Agency (Danida) is the focus of the article. The study linked Danish and Malaysian educational and public service institutions in efforts to foster collaboration between researchers in the two countries. The study concludes that although Malaysia's research capacity expanded as a result of the project, there was little hope of continued collaboration between the Danish and Malaysian due to a lack of common research goals. Suggestions for how to better implement twinning methodologies are offered.

• Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) can support valuable grassland habitats. • SUDS-induced landscape modifications was targeted desired species and habitats. • Overall plant species richness and diversity increased after SUDS construction. • Availability of floral resources (pollen and nectar) for pollinators also increased. • Enhancing ecological qualities in SUDS did not compromise SUDS functionality. Urban green areas can provide ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation, recreational and educational services, and local climate regulation including stormwater management. Implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) allows for development of designs targeting desired habitats or species groups. This study investigated short-term changes in a plant community following implementation of a SUDS designed to enhance nature quality of a 4.8 ha urban grassland in Lynge, Denmark. Dry basins allowed for water detention with construction entailing terrain modifications, seeding of target species and changes to water dynamics, resulting in four treatments differing in soil conditions and water regimes. Plant species richness and composition were documented before (2012) and two years after (2015 and 2016) implementation of the SUDS. A floral resources index was composed to assess the quality of the flora as foraging resource for four groups of bees. Plant species richness, alpha- and beta-diversity as well as frequency of target plant species significantly increased after SUDS construction, as did floral resources for bees. Increased alpha diversity was primarily seen in areas around dry basins, while the increase in overall beta-diversity related to a shift in plant community composition within dry basins. The SUDS construction also changed dominance relationships among plant groups as forb cover increased at the expense of grasses, and cover of seeded and post-construction naturally colonising species increased. Two years after construction this study confirms potentials of SUDS to enhance ecological value of urban grasslands, when targets for ecological enhancement are integrated in the SUDS design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local authorities face a great challenge in translating officially announced sustainability commitments into everyday management practices. With the objective of developing a tool for supporting such goal-to-practice translation processes, three primary tool criteria were formulated, and used to develop a guide on how to apply the tool. Subsequently, the tool was applied and evaluated in an interactive study involving the local authority of a Danish municipality. The first toolcriterion concerns the organisation of the translation process. It states that in order to obtain a clear understanding of the unique local conditions, the tool shall be able to act as a bridge between different disciplines, and allow for direct collaboration between expertswith context-independent knowledge and local administrators with context-dependent knowledge. The second criterion concerns the identification of sustainable management strategies. It states that the tool shall secure a thorough two-sided analysis of society's claims on one side, and on the other side the ability of available resources to meet these claims in a sustainable way. The third criterion concerns thedistribution of the results of the analysing phase. It states that in order to support dialogue and decision making across professional and societal boundaries, the identified claims and resources as well as the associated obstacles shall be presented in simple and preferably visual overviews. In testing the tool we focused on the ability of the municipality's urban green structure (the resource) to contributeto sustainable management of organic waste, surface runoff and biodiversity (the claims). Based on the outcome of the test, and an interview survey with the participating local administrators, it is concluded that the tool criteria are sound. This is despite the fact that the test of the tool was not applied in full accordance with the tool guidelines. It is anticipated that the application of this tool can increa [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Stormwater infiltration measures such as soakaways are expected to be part of future urban drainage systems. However, few studies exist on the effect of extensive stormwater infiltration through soakaways on the overall urban water system, including sewers and groundwater, at city catchment scale. In particular such estimates have not been made in real urban settings with multiple physical and structural constraints. This paper presents a methodology for conducting such an analysis, and provides quantitative estimates of the effects on the urban water flows. Using an interdisciplinary, three-step approach that employed GIS analyses and physically distributed, dynamic pipe flow modelling in an iterative manner, this study estimates the impact of infiltration on combined sewage overflows (CSOs) in a 3km2 urban catchment in Copenhagen. The first step was the creation of a baseline scenario. The second step led to a potential infiltration scenario where 65% of the total impervious area was connected to soakaways, and resulted in an estimated reduction in annual sewage overflow volume of 68%. This scenario was then further developed in the third step by adding groundwater constraints, which formed a more realistic scenario where only 8% of the impervious area was connected to soakaways and the reduction in CSO volume was 24%. The potential and realistic scenarios were modelled both with hydraulic coupling between soakaway and sewer, and as fully disconnected. Results show that infiltration is constrained mainly by the quality of the stormwater runoff from roads and limited land availability in the potential infiltration scenario, and by low-permeable soils and a problematically high groundwater level in the realistic infiltration scenario. The hydraulically coupled model gives higher CSO volume than the fully disconnected model for the potential infiltration scenario, whereas no difference is seen between these two models in the realistic infiltration scenario. The effect of infiltration on combined sewer overflows is thus expected to be limited in the case study area. General conclusions are that groundwater constraints are important to consider when evaluating the potential of infiltration-based stormwater management, and that it is important to include the hydraulic coupling between soakaways and sewers in models if soakaways are expected to give overflow to the sewers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Most cities in Denmark are situated on low permeable clay rich deposits. These sediments are of glacial origin and range among the most heterogeneous, with hydraulic conductivities spanning several orders of magnitude. This heterogeneity has obvious consequences for the sizing of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS). We have tested methods to reveal geological heterogeneity at field scale to identify the most suitable sites for the placement of infiltration elements and to minimize their required size. We assessed the geological heterogeneity of a clay till plain in Eastern Jutland, Denmark measuring the shallow subsurface resistivity with a geoelectrical multi-electrode system. To confirm the resistivity data we conducted a spear auger mapping. The exposed sediments ranged from clay tills over sandy clay tills to sandy tills and correspond well to the geoelectrical data. To verify the value of geological information for placement of infiltration elements we carried out a number of infiltration tests on geologically different areas across the field, and we observed infiltration rates two times higher in the sandy till area than in the clay till area, thus demonstrating that the hydraulic performance of SuDS can be increased considerably and oversizing avoided if field geological heterogeneity is revealed before placing SuDS.