SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Wind Data Collection Services to Support the Wildlife-Urban Interface Communities Research Program
- Notice Date
- 7/23/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1640
- Solicitation Number
- NB866030906145mac
- Archive Date
- 8/5/2009
- Point of Contact
- Mario A. Checchia, Phone: 301-975-8407
- E-Mail Address
-
mario.checchia@nist.gov
(mario.checchia@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a request for information/sources sought notice(RFI) to assist the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) for the purpose of conducting market research. A solicitation is not currently available, and unsolicited proposals in responses to this RFI will not be accepted. The NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland is conducting market research for the following : DRAFT STATEMENT OF WORK - The Contractor shall provide the technical expertise required to collect wind data to support the Wildlife-Urban Interface Communities Research Program. Background Information : The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a Reduced Risk of Fire Spread in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Communities research program. The program objective is to develop, by the end of FY2013 the first generation tools for improved risk assessment and mitigation approaches in WUI communities at risk from wildfires. These tools will be constructed via laboratory and field measurements and databases, physics-based fire behavior models, and economic cost analysis models. WUI fires occur when wildland fires cannot be controlled, often due to extreme wind and fuel conditions, and spread into communities. These fires occur worldwide. In the last ten years, significant damage from WUI fires has occurred in the U.S., Australia, and the Mediterranean region. Within the last 100 years in the U.S., six of the top 10 most damaging single fire events involving structures were WUI fires. Both the number of acres burned annually by wildland fires and the number of houses located in the WUI are increasing. Beginning in 2001 increased funding for wildland-fuel treatments was provided by Congress through the National Fire Plan. The majority of this fuel treatment funding is directed at wildland fuels in high risk WUI settings. The average annual federal funding for suppression and wildland fuel treatments has increased from $1.3 billion (1996 to 2000) to $3.1 billion (2001 to 2005)2. Even with the increased level of risk reduction effort through wildland-fuel treatments, California has suffered two major WUI fire loss events in the last five years. The 2003 Cedar fire cost $2B in insured losses and destroyed 3600 homes. WUI fires can also cause significant evacuations. The October 2007 southern California fires displaced residents of over 300,000 homes and resulted in over $1B in insured losses. Overall, these trends suggest that the severity of the WUI fire problem will not decrease. Despite the increasing frequency and losses from WUI fires, there has been relatively little research, compared to fires within structures, on WUI fire spread. This is due, in part, to the fact that the subject of WUI fire research falls between traditional studies of building fires and forest fires, which in the past has been the responsibility of different branches of the government. Advances in measurement science are needed to effectively characterize and identify the conditions and mechanisms that result in a high risk of structure ignition across a range of WUI community types and conditions. Also, to date, no study that measures the effectiveness of current risk mitigation practices, whether through wildland fuel treatments or modification of residential fuels, has been conducted. NIST is developing the Wildland Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS). This 3-dimensional physics based model is being developed specifically to predict and quantify WUI and Wildland fire behavior. NIST is partnering with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Forest Service (USFS) to address some of the technical issues associated with WUI research. The NIST-NOAA partnership is looking at the fire atmospheric coupling while the work with the forest service focuses on fire behavior and the burning of Wildland and residential vegetation. NIST and San Diego State University have partnered to collect field wind data for WFDS development and verification. The effort is aimed at collecting wind data in conditions similar to those during the Witch fire. In order to further advance the WUI program additional expertise and skills are needed. Specifically, expertise is needed in the areas of WUI wind data collection A.PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROCUREMENT The purpose of this procurement is for the Contractor collect wind data for the verification and validation of the NIST WFDS model. B. CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS 1. Advanced degree in engineering or physics with previous expertise in data analysis and ground truthing of airborne measurements. 2. The contractor must demonstrate proficiency using the NIST FDS or WFDS models. Publication of previous modeling work is helpful. 3. The contractor must have personnel located in Southern California. The Contractor shall provide all support for project oversight, equipment (unless stated otherwise in Section D of this statement of work (SOW)), administration and technical execution of this contract. The Contractor is responsible for maintaining accurate records of project activities. Period of Performance. The period of performance is a two (2) year base period and a one-year (1) option for a total period of performance of three (3) years. Place of Performance. Work shall be performed at Contractor’s facilities and field locations in Southern California. Travel shall be reimbursed in accordance with Federal Travel regulations. The Contractor shall not exceed funding for travel $5,000/year. The Contractor shall provide support in the areas of: WUI wind data collection. The Contractor shall 1. Acknowledge that all deliverables and data generated under this contract remains the property of the Government. 2. Acknowledge that the government retains government use license to all such inventions. 3. Unless otherwise noted, the Contractor shall provide all labor and materials for the tasks listed below: Field instrumentation, data collection and analysis, and WFDS verification. The Contractor shall provide and setup instrumentation, collect wind data over a variety of terrains and conduct WFDS model validation and verification runs. The Contractor shall provide sites for flat terrain and mountainous (complex) terrain data collection. Sites shall be no smaller that 1000 ft by 1000 ft. Instrumentation provided by NIST will consist of four 30 ft tall towers with anemometers and data loggers. C.GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES All material provided by the Government in the performance of this work remains the property of the Government and shall be surrendered to the government upon completion or termination of this requirement. Likewise, all data and deliverables generated under this contract remain the property of the Government. Government furnished equipment will be provided in an as condition and in a working condition. Weather stations will be provided for the wind data collection. 1. Instrumentation equipment manufacturers and part numbers are listed in table below. The equipment will be available 15 days after award for the Contractor to pickup. Government Provided Wind Instrumentation Particulars ManufacturerPart NumberQuantity Second Wind3013 Second Wind3523 Second Wind98130 Second Wind98312 Second Wind3953 Second Wind1443 NRG Systems339020 NRG Systems19414 Second Wind122B12 NRG Systems19934 Affordable Solar26594 Comptus, Inc.A27-S-N4PC2 Comptus, Inc.IFC2001 2. Throughout the performance of this contact, the Government will evaluate all Government furnished equipment and will replace or upgrade as necessary. D.REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND DELIVERABLES The Contractor shall provide the following for each task : Task TitleDeliverablesTask InitiationDeliverable Completion Field instrumentation, data collection and analysis and WFDS verification1. Four sets of field wind data for flat terrain 2. WFDS validation verification runs of simulated flat terrain experiments 3. Four sets of field wind data for mountainous terrain 4. WFDS validation verification runs of simulated mountainous terrain experiments 1 through 4. Work shall start within one month of contract award1 through 4. Six months after initiation, submit a technical report All technical reports shall include an executive summary, table of contents, data collected along with from which instrument or sensor, quality control data, conclusions, recommendations, and raw data as an appendix. The Contractor shall also provide Quarterly progress reports that document the following for the previous quarter: 1.Activities accomplished any problems, issues, risks, and recommendations that were brought to the attention of the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR). 2.Planned activities for the next time period. 3.Due by the tenth calendar day after the start of the next quarter. All technical and progress reports shall be submitted in MS Word. Standards for Acceptance of Deliverables: The COTR will provide comments on each deliverable within 21 calendars days from receipt of a given deliverable. The Contractor shall make any needed changes to the deliverables within 21 calendar days from receipt of electronic or written comments from the COTR. The COTR will provide written notification when deliverable is accepted. E.PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall include program management and control requirements in his proposal. F.INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA The COTR will evaluate all deliverables and provide written comments and acceptance of all deliverables. The COTR will periodically review the data generated by the Contractor to ensure that it meets the performance requirements set forth in this contract. INVOICING -The Contractor shall invoice on a quarterly basis. ****************END DRAFT STATEMENT OF WORK*****************. Any organization responding to this RFI notice shall have the capabilities to provide the services of the NAICS code 541712 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. NIST is especially interested in receiving input from small businesses who can meet the above described capabilities. HOW TO RESPOND TO THE SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE-Potential sources that possess capabilities to perform the aforementioned services are encouraged to respond to this notice and provide the following information: 1) Detailed narrative describing the company/organization’s current capabilities that are directly relevant to the aforementioned work; 2) Description of each similar project completed by your company/organization as a prime Contractor or as a significant Subcontractor within the past three (3) years, including as much of the following information as possible: (a) dollar amount of the contract; (b) brief description of the technical requirements of the project’ (c) contract type used on the project (e.g., firm-fixed price, labor-hour, time-and-materials, cost plus-fixed fee, cost-plus-award-fee and cost plus-incentives-fee, etc); (d) indication of how long the project took to complete from start to finish; and (e) name, address, point of contact and phone number of the customer organization for which the work was done. 3) Current socio-economic status of your company as it relates to North American Industrial Classification System (NAIC) code listed above. 4) Indication of whether your company currently has an active registration in the Central Contractor’s Registration at www.ccr.gov. Your submission must be received by 5:00 PM EST on Tuesday July 28, 2009 by email to : Mario.Checchia@nist.gov. The capability statements shall be not more than twenty (20) pages on 8.5” x 11” paper, with 1” margins and a 12 point, commonly used font such as, Courier New or Times Roman in length. The Government reserves the right to contact any of the submitters to attain further market research. This contact may be in the form of direct Government/Submitter meeting(s). THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION/SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOPOSALS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT COMMITTED TO AWARD A CONTRACT PURSUANT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. RESPONSES SHALL NOT INCLUDE COST OR PRICING INFORMATION. PLEASE DIRECT ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS RFI/ SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE BY EMAIL TO mario.checchia@nist.gov BY CLOSE OF BUSINESS July 25, 2009.
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