Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 01, 2003 FBO #0549
SOURCES SOUGHT

T -- Establishing non-contractual business partnerships with commercial firms capable of online or media delivery of NRCS geospatial and imagery data to Technical Service Providers (TSPs).

Notice Date

5/30/2003
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

Contracting Office

Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Business Management Center, Fort Worth Federal Center, Building 23 501 Felix Street, Fort Worth, TX, 76115
 

ZIP Code

76115
 

Solicitation Number

NRCS-MSD-03-1
 

Response Due

7/8/2003
 

Archive Date

7/23/2003
 

Point of Contact

Barbara Bardin, Contract Specialist, Phone 817-509-3519, Fax 817-509-3594, - Alan Browder, Supervisory Contracting Officer, Phone 817-509-3505, Fax 817-509-3594,
 

E-Mail Address

bbardin@ftw.nrcs.usda.gov, abrowder@ftw.nrcs.usda.gov
 

Description

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Geospatial Business Partners 1.0 Introduction The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is considering establishing non-contractual business partnerships with commercial firms capable of online or media delivery of NRCS geospatial and imagery data to Technical Service Providers (TSPs). In addition, the business partners may arrange to provide additional geospatial technology services to TSPs. This Request for Information (RFI) is a request for interested parties to provide written responses describing their capabilities, resources and interests to fulfill this need. The NRCS does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or pay for information received in response to this RFI. The RFI is issued for NRCS information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. 2.0 Background The 2002 Farm Bill authorized USDA to utilize certified Technical Service Providers (TSPs) to provide conservation technical assistance to landowners on behalf of USDA. In addition, the 2002 Farm Bill represents the single most significant commitment of resources toward conservation on private lands in the nation?s history. As a result, the demand for technical assistance to do conservation work is expected to increase and exceed the current staffing capacity of the NRCS. Types of technical assistance services provided by TSPs may include but are not limited to conservation planning and design, layout, installation, and checkout of installed conservation practices. Work performed by TSPs must meet NRCS standards and specifications, program requirements, and relevant laws and regulations. TSPs will provide technical services to private landowners, farmers, ranchers and producers who participate in USDA conservation programs. TSPs will complement the work currently being done by NRCS conservationists at the local level. As of May 1, 2003, approximately 380 TSPs are certified and over 400 are pending certification. About 35 businesses and entities are certified and about 100 are pending certification. The NRCS has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with organizations having TSP certification programs with membership over 10,000. 3.0 Need For Geospatial Data and Technology Services NRCS conservationists are continually increasing their use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and automated tools to more efficiently develop, manage and monitor planned and installed conservation practices. The NRCS believes TSPs will also use the same GIS and geospatial technologies to plan and install conservation practices and/or request these geospatial services from a second party. The NRCS makes geospatial data available to the general pubic via the Resource Data Gateway (RDG). The NRCS will continue to make NRCS authoritative geospatial data available to the general pubic via the RDG. NRCS authoritative data is only available to the general public in the data?s native format. NRCS does not integrate, customize or manipulate NRCS authoritative data for the general public. Most data obtained by the public is downloaded from the RDG. The NRCS plans to limit the delivery of geospatial data obtained from external sources (e.g. other federal agencies) to the general public via the RDG. NRCS will direct general public requests for external data to the appropriate authoritative source and/or Geospatial Business Partners. The NRCS will continue to make both authoritative and external data available to NRCS and other USDA internal users through the RDG. The TSPs will require access to geospatial data and GIS support services to accomplish their tasks. The TSPs increased demand for geospatial data will exceed NRCS? capability and impact our internal RDG delivery system. The Geospatial Business Partners are expected to alleviate these demands on NRCS. NRCS cannot provide an estimated number of TSPs that will require geospatial data and services nor can we predict the volume of services at this time. 4.0 Role of Geospatial Business Partners. We envision the role of the Geospatial Business Partners would be to provide geospatial data and geospatial technology services to TSPs. Compensation for these services would be negotiated between the TSPs and Geospatial Business Partners through either a charge per transaction or a subscription based pricing model. Examples of the types of services and products that the Geospatial Business Partners would likely provide to TSPs are listed below: - Provide geospatial data in either digital or hard-copy format. - Create/digitize new geospatial data sets for GIS use. - Add value or enhance existing geospatial data sets for GIS use. - Integrate and/or convert geodata to GIS ready format. - Perform GIS analysis services. - Package and customize geospatial data and information for TSP and landowner use. - Provide tools like Customer Service Toolkit (CST) for TSP use. - Provide total mapping and GIS functional support. - Obtain datasets from other sources (private, local government, federal government, etc) integrate and deliver to TSPs or use to provide GIS analysis services. - Host geospatial data and provide full service integration, e.g. managing geospatial and tabular data. - Provide subscription services to NRCS authoritative data such as soils and digital orthoimagery and other geospatial data. - Customize data sets for specific locations and needs - Host on-line data servers and provide online spatial and mapping services for access by TSPs. - Provide custom integration of different geospatial datasets to facilitate TSP use in a GIS. - Provide access, training, and support for use of automated conservation planning tools such as the Customer Service Toolkit, GIS, GPS, etc. 5.0 NRCS Relationship With Geospatial Business Partners. The NRCS would agree to provide the following to the Geospatial Business Partners: - Provide online access to NRCS authoritative geospatial data. - Reduce the cost for large purchases of NRCS authoritative geospatial data. - Notify Business Partners of updates to NRCS authoritative geospatial data. - Give priority to Geospatial Business Partners requests for new or enhanced authoritative data. - Publicize Geospatial Business Partners from NRCS web sites. - Refer TSPs to Geospatial Business Partners. - Provide technical information on the use and management of NRCS geospatial data. 6.0 Geospatial Data Needs Below are the primary and typical types of geospatial data that will be required by TSPs. Typically, the data needs to be detailed and of resolution for use at farm and ranch land parcels. a) NRCS Authoritative Geospatial Data: - Soils ? SSURGO (Soil Survey Geographic Database) and STATSGO (State Soil Survey Geographic Database). - Orthoimagery ? DOQ, DOQQ, County Mosaics - Hydrologic Units ? (watershed and sub-watershed boundaries) b) External Geospatial Data: - Digital Raster Graphics ? USGS topographic maps - Elevation - Hydrography (streams, rivers, etc) - US Census TIGER (transportation, etc.) - Cadastral (public land survey, national forests, etc.) - Common Land Units (FSA farm field boundaries) - Land parcels - Wetlands - Land Cover/Use 7.0 Links for Additional Information. - More information on Technical Service Providers (TSPs): http://techreg.usda.gov - Information about Customer Service Toolkit application software tools: http://www.itc.nrcs.usda.gov/toolkit/ - Information on NRCS soil survey geospatial databases: http://www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/ssur_data.html - Information on NRCS digital orthoimagery database: http://www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/ortho.html - Information on NRCS hydrologic unit database: http://www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/huc_data.html - Information about the Resource Data Gateway: http://lighthouse.nrcs.usda.gov/gateway/gatewayhome.html 8.0 Submission Format. Following is a suggested format for responding to this RFI. This outline is intended to minimize the effort of the respondent. Section 1. Resources and Interests. Briefly describe your interests in becoming a Geospatial Business Partner with NRCS to support the geospatial technology needs of TSPs. Please include any comments or suggestions on the structure or nature of a public-private agreement as described in this RFI. Section 2. Corporate Expertise. Briefly describe your company, your products and services, history, ownership, company size, ownership status and any other information deemed relevant. In particular, describe any projects or services that you have been involved with that are similar to what is described in this RFI. Provide any supporting materials deemed appropriate. Section 3. Technical Considerations. Describe your current geospatial data holdings and briefly explain how your company proposes to deliver geospatial data to TSPs. Briefly describe your capabilities to provide geospatial technology services to TSPs as described in this RFI. Describe your capability to convert, integrate and deliver geodata in GIS ready format. Describe any existing online web mapping/GIS applications. Please provide your website URLs for any web mapping applications. Relate your experiences and capabilities in handling large file sizes such as orthoimagery. Describe your security assurance processes in working with sensitive landowner information such as farm and tract number, land use determinations and cropland acres. 9.0 Point of Contact Information. The Government Point of Contact (POC) for this RFI is: George Rohaley National Remote Sensing Leader USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service 5601 Sunnyside Ave Room 1-2104, MS-5475 Beltsville, MD 20705 george.rohaley@usda.gov Please submit responses to this RFI via email to the POC by July 8, 2003, for consideration. You may also submit supplemental hardcopy materials such as brochures to the POC. Any questions with respective answers will be emailed to all responders.
 

Place of Performance

Address: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Attn: George Rahaley, National Remote Sensing Leader, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2104, MS-5475, Beltville, MD

Zip Code: 20705

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00336395-W 20030601/030531232919 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |