The SHENAIR Initiative is a consortium of Virginia universities and local governments that is focused on air quality issues in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. As part of this effort, researchers at the University of Virginia and James Madison University are working with local community leaders to provide two different decision support tools aimed at improving public health and safety. One tool is the Shenandoah Valley Air Health Alert System which links the spatial synoptic classification system (Sheridan, 2002) with real-time weather data to predict conditions that pose increased health risks to individuals suffering from respiratory ailments. The other system is the CATS/HPAC decision support system for emergency response. This system (developed by SAIC in the1990's for the federal government) uses sophisticated weather and air dispersion models to predict the trajectories and atmospheric concentrations of toxic chemicals released during a hazardous chemical accident or terrorist attack. This paper describes the intended benefits and implications from the deployment of these two systems.

Reference: Sheridan, S.C., 2002: The Redevelopment of a Weather-type Classification Scheme for North America. Intl. J. Climatol., 22, 51-68.