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Nuclear power and modern agriculture are two crucial sectors for sustainable development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As these industries mature rapidly in the country, their long-term inter-compatibility needs monitoring with local data on transfer of radionuclides from arid sandy soils to farm products. Date palms, main crop from the Arabian Peninsula, remain largely unstudied for radioecological impact assessments. This paper reports the first measurement of soil to UAE date palms concentration ratios for natural radionuclides. Representative samples of soils, fruits, and leaves from seven palms in Abu Dhabi have been studied using gamma-spectrometry. Average activity concentrations in the soils are around 278.9 Bq kg−1 for 40K, 15.5 Bq kg−1 for 238U, and 8.3 Bq kg−1 for 232Th. The latter two decay chains, in the plant samples, are close to detection limits, signifying their lower levels in the UAE flora and the need for upgrading analytical techniques. The geometric means of soil to fruit concentration ratios are 1.12 for 40K, but negligibly low for the others—approximately 0.08 for 238U and 0.17 for 232Th chains. The respective ratios for the leaves are approximately 0.13, 0.36, and 0.77. Personal radiation doses due to soils and dates are very low, posing no danger to the public.

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 management of contaminated areas in Western Europe. A critical evaluation was carried out of countermeasures and waste disposal options, from which compendia of state-of-the-art restoration methods were compiled. A decision support system capable of optimising spatially varying restoration strategies, that considered the level of averted dose, costs (including those of waste disposal) and environmental side effects was developed. Appropriate methods of estimating indirect costs associated with side effects and of communicating with stakeholders 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.