MODIFICATION
T -- Remote Sensing for Emergencies
- Notice Date
- 11/10/2009
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541370
— Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services
- Contracting Office
- Office of the Chief Procurement Officer, Washington, District of Columbia, 20528, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20528
- Solicitation Number
- HSHQDC-10-Q-00015
- Archive Date
- 12/8/2009
- Point of Contact
- Carrie A Herndon, Phone: 202-447-5559, Rachel Harriott, Phone: 202-447-5798
- E-Mail Address
-
carrie.a.herndon@dhs.gov, Rachel.Harriott@dhs.gov
(carrie.a.herndon@dhs.gov, Rachel.Harriott@dhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This amendment revises the following sections, please see the text for the full correction: 3.1. Industry Day- The correct address for the industry day is revised from 301 7th Street to 701 D Street SW. 3.2 Response Deadline- The cutoff day for questions has been changed from November 23, 2009 to November 18, 2009. Written responses to questions received by November 18, 2009 will be provided in writing at the industry day. Additional questions will be received at the industry day. Responses to questions received at the industry day will be provided in writing and posted as an amendment to this RFI. 1.0 OBJECTIVE & SCOPE 1.1 INTRODUCTION Imagery, such as vertical and oblique aerial photography and mapping are a critical component in the management of response and recovery operations following a natural, technological or manmade disaster. Imagery acquired in the immediate aftermath of an emergency provides situational awareness for emergency managers and a detailed record of damage for use in response, recovery and mitigation efforts. It is critical that imagery and derived products such as, damage polygons, surge lines, inundation, etc. are made available to emergency management officials in the shortest possible amount of time after a declared emergency or disaster. The ability to easily and rapidly integrate imagery products with other geospatial data within a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment is also critical to effective response, recovery and post disaster mitigation missions. Therefore these imagery products must be digital, rectified to the earth's surface using conventional coordinate systems and projections, and be accompanied by complete metadata. Examples of mission support use of post-disaster imagery integrated with other spatial data within a GIS environment include: damage assessments, search and rescue, debris estimation, flooding extents and hazardous materials release. The paramount concern is providing timely, accurate and sufficiently detailed information with the ability to interface with GIS to key emergency management officials. 1.2 PURPOSE The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to obtain industry feedback on current practices and anticipated new concepts with respect to post disaster remote sensing services, imagery collection, derived products and the ability to rapidly store, orthorectify and disseminate collected information. To achieve this purpose, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is evaluating the need to establish an internal capability to issue contracts for remote sensing services during emergency events and Stafford Act Declarations to support FEMA responsibilities under Emergency Support Function (ESF) 5 of the National Response Framework to provide geographic information, imagery, and analyses to all Federal agencies, ESF partners, and states. DHS seeks input from industry regarding its capabilities and solutions to provide airborne imagery and derived products quickly and in a GIS-ready form that can be used by emergency managers to make critical decisions. DHS is also considering multiple Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type contracts to meet these anticipated requirements. These contracts would be used to support "no-notice" type events characterized by little to no advanced warning, such as flash floods, tornados, and earthquakes and events for which there is the opportunity to prepare and mobilize, particularly hurricanes. In addition, DHS is evaluating the need for "readiness" or "preparedness" tasks within the scope of the anticipated IDIQ contracts. Such tasks might require periodic meeting with key emergency management officials to plan and coordinate for post disaster imagery collection activities, table top and field preparedness exercises that would include tests of imagery collection capabilities, and developing capabilities that would allow DHS to have continuous awareness of aircraft, crew and sensor availability to support mission needs. 1.3 BACKGROUND FEMA is the designated lead agency to coordinate the federal response to and support for state governments during the response and recovery from disasters declared under the Robert T. Stafford Act. Remotely sensed imagery may be required to provide situational awareness during response or to document post-event conditions to guide recovery and mitigation efforts. In either case, imagery and derived products must be acquired, analyzed and disseminated rapidly to a broad community of agencies and organizations who support response and recovery operations. 1.4 CURRENT STATE OF OPERATIONS To meet post disaster event imagery needs, FEMA issues Mission Assignments to a federal agency that holds IDIQ contracts for surveying and mapping services. FEMA must first prepare a set of requirements (action requests) which are forwarded to the agency that is acting as FEMA's executive agent. The supporting agency prepares a scope of services and provides FEMA with a cost estimate. FEMA then prepares a Mission Assignment to the supporting agency. At this point, the supporting agency issues a contract for services. The contractor obtains imagery of the Area-of-Interest (AOI) and ships the information back to its production facility for processing. Once the imagery is processed to orthophotography, the contractor makes multiple copies of the data on portable hard drives and sends the media via overnight express to numerous organizations that exploit the imagery to produce cartographic and GIS products. Overnight shipments continue until the AOI is captured and the imagery is fully processed. Development of derived products proceeds as imagery is delivered in increments until imagery from the entire AOI is collected and processed. Multiple copies of the processed imagery are copied to portable disks for distribution to agencies with top priority requirements. The data is then published via the USGS Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS) which provides access to the imagery via web mapping services, FTP and clip-and-ship to produce additional copies on hard copy media. 1.5 FUTURE STATE OF OPERATIONS DHS seeks to implement a streamlined post event imagery collection operation that is flexible in meeting the specialized needs of disaster response and recovery. Paramount is the need for speed in the delivery of products to decision makers and the ability to provide wide dissemination of products in an effective manner. To meet these objectives, DHS is considering multiple IDIQ contracts as the appropriate contract vehicle to support response and recovery missions. However, as this is an RFI, and not a Request for Proposals, the specific number of contracts to be awarded and the requirements for those contracts are still to be determined. The anticipated functional requirement for post event imagery collection will be for digital orthophotography at resolutions between 6 inches and 2-feet using digital camera systems that deliver processed imagery in 4 co-registered bands (red, green, blue, and near infrared). In additional DHS may have requirements for the acquisition of oblique imagery of populated areas at a 1-foot resolution in natural color. As further guidance to respondents of this RFI, DHS anticipates that the acquisition and processing of post event imagery will be based on the following concepts: 1. Acquisition will be prioritized based on the level of damage It is expected that damage priorities will be divided into 3 or 4 categories. This may necessitate contractors to design separate acquisition plans for each area of damage priority because the areas will be irregularly shaped and may require acquisition using flight lines that are not oriented north-to-south or east-to-west. 2. Rapid Delivery of Post-Event Imagery is Critical. As the contractor obtains and processes the imagery (vertical and/or oblique, and possibly videography), the Contractor will support emergency managers by publishing an uninspected version of the imagery using a temporary Web-Mapping Service at the contractor's site until processed imagery can be sent to a Government site for hosting and dissemination to the broad range of responding agencies. It is expected that the initial versions of the imagery will contain tonal mismatches and other possible artifacts. The Contractor may also be required to distribute limited copies of the processed imagery via electronic transfer. Once the acquisition is completed and the imagery has been inspected by the Government, the Contractor will produce a final tone-corrected version of the imagery. This final version will disseminated as the authoritative version of the imagery. 3. Innovative Technology Solutions for Rapid Processing and Dissemination Contractors may also have the ability to produce an initial version of the imagery using field-deployed equipment and personnel and to disseminate data electronically from the field. 4. The Support System Should be Regularly Tested It is anticipated that DHS will conduct an annual exercise in order to test operational plans, procedures and technologies. Contractors will receive a task order to cover the costs incurred through participation in the exercise. The exercise will require collection, processing and dissemination of imagery for a pre-selected area. Performance metrics will be collected for all activities including those for the Contractors but also for those related to government activities for acquisition, data publication and dissemination. This exercise will also be an opportunity for IDIQ holders to demonstrate and to test new applications, technologies and procedures. 5. Performance Must be Objectively Measured DHS anticipates that advances in technology and program management will continue to reduce the time necessary to acquire, process and deliver imagery and derived products to emergency managers and planners. Further, DHS anticipates that processes for issuing and managing task orders will be refined and that efficiency will also continue to improve. DHS will develop objective measurable criteria and will report on improvement in response times to produce imagery and data products after an event. 2.0 RESPONSE GUIDELINES AND REQUIRED FORMAT 2.1 RESPONSE GUIDELINES The DHS GMO is seeking industry comments to achieve the following goals: 1. Pre-event coordination and communication with DHS to ensure readiness. 2. Rapid deployment for a no notice event and pre-deployment of aircraft, personnel and equipment in anticipation of an emergency event to start flight operations as soon as possible following an event. 3. Collection of post event imagery and the processing and dissemination of post-event imagery in the fastest possible manner. Vendors are encouraged to discuss technical solutions that include vertical and oblique renditions of the processed imagery. 4. Methods to maintain communications with the Government in order to track the progress of post event missions and to provide the Government with a means to provide feedback and input regarding the imagery and resulting products. 5. Concepts for the exploitation of imagery to provide products in support of DHS response, recovery and mitigation missions. 6. Recommend performance metrics, procedures and communication strategies to meet the objectives of the imagery and GIS Mapping services to support emergency response and recovery. 2.2 RESPONSE FORMAT Responses to this RFI shall use the format outlined below. All responses shall be unclassified. The document format shall be either in Microsoft Word [.doc], Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] formats. In order to better assist in the evaluation of submittals to this RFI, respondents are encouraged to prepare a technical capabilities statement which closely adheres to the following format. Promotional literature should not be included. i. Respondent(s) Background/Experience (Not to exceed 2 pages) Respondents should briefly describe their company's background and experience in providing remote sensing and mapping support to emergency response. ii. Overview of Proposed Solution(s) (Not to exceed 3 pages) Respondents should describe proposed turnkey solutions to the acquisition and processing of airborne imagery that include approaches to logistics, recommendations for aircraft and sensor systems, processing routines and strategies for imagery and data dissemination and communications. Respondents may include a discussion of proposed strategies to provide DHS with additional data and valued added geospatial services that may include access to parcel and address information to support production of derived products that leverage post-event imagery. Such products might include housing damage assessments, flood inundation extents and/or debris analysis. All respondents are encouraged to discuss innovative solutions for the use of web services for dissemination of imagery and products and communications regarding missions and products. iii. Technical (Not to exceed 10 pages) Respondents should describe in detail the proposed feature/functionality of their solution(s). Responses should outline special considerations with regard to system deployment, processing capabilities and data hosting and publication. Technical responses may include, but are not limited to the following: • Strategies for communication with deployed air crews to facilitate changes and modifications to flight plans based on changing conditions and requirements. • Strategies and solutions to report on readiness during months of peak storm activity. • Strategies for communicating status of collection and processing activities. • Unique capabilities of sensors or combined sensor systems (vertical and oblique renditions). • Solutions for field processing of imagery to eliminate delays due to overnight shipments. • Innovative imagery processing solutions (rectification, radiometry, mosaicing, metadata creation) • Web services • Data dissemination strategies to mitigate the need for creation of multiple copies of hard drives. • Innovations in metadata creation and search tools. • Concepts for the exploitation of imagery to provide derived products. • Concepts for the exploitation of georeferenced video data and production of products. 3.0 RESPONSE DEADLINE AND POINT OF CONTACT INFORMATION 3.1 Industry Day DHS will sponsor an industry day on Monday, November 23, 2009 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at 701 D Street SW in Washington DC. Please complete the accompanying registration form and email it to GMORemoteSensingRFI@dhs.gov. There is a limit of 3 attendees for each company who wishes to attend. Instructions and directions will be sent to registered participants. This will be an opportunity for the Government to provide additional details on requirements and long term goals for remote sensing to support emergency response. This will be an opportunity for commercial firms to ask questions and get information and clarification from government subject matter experts. 3.2 Response Deadline Question Period The cutoff date for receipt of all questions regarding this RFI is November 18, 2009. Written responses to questions received by November 18, 2009 will be provided in writing at the industry day. Additional questions will be received at the industry day. Responses to questions received at the industry day will be provided in writing and posted as an amendment to this RFI. Questions shall be submitted to Rachel Harriott, Contract Specialist and Carrie Herndon, Contracting Officer via the e-mail address provided no later than 2:00 pm, EDT on this date. Responses to questions received in writing via the e-mail address and verbally at the Industry Day will be posted on FedBizOpps (www.FBO.gov) as an amendment to the RFI posting. The amendment will be posted November 30, 2009. Response Due Date Technical Capabilities Statements and all supporting documentation are due to the Contract Specialist at the e-mail address provided by 10:00 am EDT December 7, 2009. 3.3 Points of Contact The point of contact for responses and questions is Rachel Harriott, Contract Specialist. Please submit all questions and responses to GMORemoteSensingRFI@dhs.gov. Respondents should note that this RFI is being issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids (IFB), a request for Proposals (RFP), a Request for Quotation or an indication that the Government will contract for any items and/or services contained in this notice. All information received in response to this notice that is marked ‘Proprietary' will be handled accordingly. Responses to this notice will not be returned. In submitting a response, you are solely responsible and accountable for all of the expenses associated with your response. The following provision(s) is applicable to this notice and is hereby incorporated by reference: FAR 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997) The full text of this clause is available at: http://www.aqcuisition.gov/far/index.html
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/OCPO/DHS-OCPO/HSHQDC-10-Q-00015/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: TBD- This is a Request for Information (RFI) only., United States
- Record
- SN02001768-W 20091112/091110235706-bbf98091906108dafd717d81949b8819 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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