The STRATEGY project: decision tools to aid sustainable restoration and long-term management of contaminated agricultural ecosystems

Abstract

The STRATEGY project (Sustainable Restoration and Long-Term Management of Contaminated Rural, Urban and Industrial Ecosystems) aimed to provide a holistic decision framework for the selection of optimal restoration strategies for the long-term sustainable were identified. The importance of stakeholder consultation at a local level and of ensuring that any response is site and scenario specific were emphasised. A value matrix approach was suggested as a method of addressing social and ethical issues within the decision-making process, and was designed to be compatible with both the countermeasure compendia and the decision support system. The applicability and usefulness of STRATEGY outputs for food production systems in the medium to long term is assessed.

Food safety and acceptance of management options after radiological contaminations of the food chain

“…During a radiological crisis or in the restoration phase, authorities or food industries may decide on protective measures aimed at limiting the consequences of the contamination and at maintaining or restoring the public trust. Several food and agricultural countermeasures have been studied in the literature (Howard et al, 2005). Some of these target specific radionuclides.…”

“…Next, the respondents were asked to state their acceptance degree (''strongly disagree" to ''strongly agree" or ''don't know/no answer") for a number of most important milk countermeasures (see Nisbet, 2002, or Howard et al, 2005, for a complete review): (i) keeping the dairy cows in stables and feeding them with uncontaminated feedstuff; (ii) reducing the radioactivity concentration in milk by administration of feed additives; (iii) processing of milk to dairy products having a low radioactivity retention factor; (iv) diluting contaminated milk with clean milk; (v) disposing of contaminated milk; and (vi) slaughtering dairy cows in case of a long duration contamination. To these we added two other options: normal consumption of milk and decreasing contamination as much as possible (see Appendix).…”

Forage grasses with lower uptake of caesium and strontium could provide ‘safer’ crops for radiologically contaminated areas

“…Conversely, cultivar substitution for a given crop is likely to be readily applicable, socially acceptable and require no new skills, knowledge or markets. However, not enough is known about its efficacy for it to be widely recommended [12][13]. …”

New developments to support decision-making in contaminated inhabited areas following incidents involving a release of radioactivity to the environment

“…Due to adverse side effects of countermeasures it may be necessary to rank the importance of different societal aspects potentially affected by an intervention. Experiments to assess public opinion in this context have been conducted in different parts of Europe, where people were asked to rank the importance of factors like scenic landscape, animal welfare, water, disruption and heritage (Howard et al, 2005). A problem with such studies is however that the results are highly case-specific and cannot be expected to reflect the local public opinion in a real crisis situation.…”

“…According to the ICRP (1999), potential advantages of intervention include 'the consequent reassurance gained by the population and the decrease in anxiety created by the situation', whereas 'disadvantages include costs, harm and social disruption associated with it'. Such considerations were first incorporated in countermeasure datasheets in connection with the European STRATEGY project (Howard et al, 2005;Andersson et al, 2003;Eged et al, 2003), introducing viewpoints from experts on social, ethical and economical sciences, and also considering observed reactions of the public and other participants in connection with countermeasure trials in the Former Soviet Union.…”