The Mott MacDonald Group is a consultancy headquartered in the United Kingdom. It employs 16,000 staff in 150 countries. Mott MacDonald is one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world.It was established in 1989 by the merger of Mott, Hay and Anderson with Sir M MacDonald & Partners.
Reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from wastewater treatment is crucial for the water industry's net zero commitments. This research aimed to evaluate the capabilities of SUMO (Version 22.1.0) and BioWin (Version 6.2) in predicting N2O emissions and identifying mitigation opportunities. Using the Rosedale Wastewater Treatment Plant in Auckland, New Zealand, as a reference, both models were calibrated with field data and N2O measurements. Although both models predicted emissions well, BioWin required modifications. A larger dataset is recommended for better calibration. The SUMO model was used to test an ammonia-based aeration control (ABAC) strategy, which involved a feedback control loop, narrow dissolved oxygen (DO) range with a minimum concentration of 1.5 mg/L and on/off aeration to minimize the aerated volume. This approach reduced emissions by 45% compared to the baseline. Full-scale confirmation of these simulation results is necessary to validate the effectiveness of the proposed mitigation strategies.
As digital twins (DTs) evolve to become more agentic through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), they acquire capabilities that extend beyond dynamic representation of their target systems. This paper presents a taxonomy of agentic DTs organised around three fundamental dimensions: the locus of agency (external, internal, distributed), the tightness of coupling (loose, tight, constitutive), and model evolution (static, adaptive, reconstructive). From the resulting 27-configuration space, we identify nine illustrative configurations grouped into three clusters: "The Present" (existing tools and emerging steering systems), "The Threshold" (where emergent properties appear and coupling becomes constitutive), and "The Frontier" (where systems gain reconstructive capabilities). Our analysis explores how agentic DTs exercise performative power–not merely representing physical systems but actively participating in constituting them. Using traffic navigation systems as examples, we show how even passive tools can exhibit emergent performativity, while advanced configurations risk performative lock-in. Drawing on performative prediction theory, we trace a progression from passive tools through active steering to ontological reconstruction, examining how constitutive coupling enables systems to create self-validating realities. Understanding these configurations is essential for navigating the transformation from DTs as mirror worlds to DTs as architects of new ontologies.
Understanding historical landslide occurrence, distribution and impacts can help to inform modern risk-mitigation strategies. By reviewing the National Library of Wales' recently digitized catalogue, a database of 532 unique landslide events was compiled spanning almost 100 years from 1822 to 1919. The mass movements were catalogued and geolocated with extent and timing information, as well as failure mode, impacts, antecedent weather and trigger mechanisms. A wide range of transport infrastructure, commercial activities and residential buildings were impacted. A total of 119 fatalities were identified. The distribution of events is compared with that of existing landslide databases for Wales. Landslides were found to occur predominantly in winter, and the dataset shows an apparent increase in landslide frequency from 1870 to 1909. The paper explores the links between landsliding and industrial development, as well as weather events. Early approaches to landslide mitigation and remediation are considered. Select case study sites are examined in detail where landsliding remains an on-going hazard.
Cities face increasingly complex sustainability challenges that demand cross-sector collaboration, yet existing participatory tools rarely integrate internationally recognised sustainability frameworks with systems-based visualisation in a way that supports coordinated action across diverse stakeholders. This paper presents the Placemaking Maptivity, a card-based serious game that operationalises the ISO 37101 cross-analysis matrix—six sustainability purposes against twelve areas of action—as a shared analytical scaffold for participatory neighbourhood planning. Following a Design Science Research approach, this formative artefact-development study iteratively refined the tool through four rounds of beta testing in online, in-person, and mixed-stakeholder international configurations, drawing use cases from the EU-funded REEFLEX, PROBONO, and eFORT projects. Each game mechanic is traced to a defined learning objective using the Learning Mechanics–Game Mechanics (LM-GM) framework. Stakeholder feedback across iterations provides preliminary observations that the Maptivity supports identification of multi-purpose contributions, mapping of interdependencies, and collaborative prioritisation of next steps while highlighting facilitation, timing, and contextual adaptation as critical success factors. Whether the tool improves planning quality, learning outcomes, or decision-making effectiveness compared to alternative approaches remains a question for future, more rigorously designed evaluation studies. We discuss the formative character of these results, set out limitations, and propose a more rigorous summative evaluation protocol to support broader scaling and adoption of the methodology.
