SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- Study to Estimate the Market & Non-Market Economic Value of Puerto Rico's Coral Reef Ecosystem
- Notice Date
- 8/5/2013
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisition Division-KC, 601 East 12th Street, Room 1756, Kansas City, Missouri, 64106, United States
- ZIP Code
- 64106
- Solicitation Number
- NCNC6000-13-01072
- Archive Date
- 9/4/2013
- Point of Contact
- Jeanie Jennings, Phone: 8164267458
- E-Mail Address
-
jeanie.m.jennings@noaa.gov
(jeanie.m.jennings@noaa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- DESCRIPTION: The United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS) acting through its Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) intends to solicit and negotiate a sole source contract with the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez (UPRM) under authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will satisfy agency requirements, unless, as a result of this announcement, acceptable responses to this notice are received and a determination is made by the government to issue a competitive solicitation. The resultant contract will be a Study to Estimate the Market and Non-Market Economic Value of Puerto Rico's Coral Reef Ecosystems for Recreation Tourism Uses. In order to accomplish the proposed contract, a key element of a community- based study is the acceptance of the community of the researchers involved in the study. The study requires the use of local knowledge in helping to properly stratify the sample of respondents in the survey of residents of the island. Local knowledge from chambers of commerce, hotel/motel associations, and diving and fishing associations is required, and working relationships with the airport authority and port authority are required for the visitor components of the surveys. UPRM has an established working relationship with businesses in the local community. The researcher must get permission to be able to send interviewers to each survey site. If the researcher is not accepted by the community, this could compromise the ability of the researcher to get a representative sample, which is critical element of the proposed contract. The UPRM is uniquely qualified to conduct this research since it is a member of the Cooperating Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU)of which NOAA and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are partners. The CESU was developed to provide a mechanism for collaboration and partnership among its members. This project between NOAA and UPRM will further strengthen this CESU relationship. The following UPRM staff members are considered experts of the survey area and offer additional qualifications: Principal Investigator, Manuel Valdez-Pizzini is a recognized expert in social science projects in PR and has conducted many surveys of marine resource users and the relationship of marine resource use and community dependence; M.T. Scharer, Sea Grant Agent, has a close working relationship with business communities in PR critical to the success of getting local support for the project and survey support; and J. Valentin also has extensive experience with conducting focus group work which is critical to helping design survey questionnaires that will be used in the survey. The period of performance is anticipated from the date of award of the contract through twenty-one (21) months. The intended procurement will be awarded through a FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items. Although the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with the only known source, UPRM, all responses received prior to the close of this notice will be considered by the Government. This is not a request for proposals and there is no solicitation available at this time. The government reserves the right either to solicit offers based on the receipt of affirmative responses to this notice or to issue a contract to UPRM, whichever is determined to be more advantageous to the Government, without further notice. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. In order to be considered, firms must submit pertinent and specific information in the technical area under consideration, on each of the following qualifications: (1) Experience: an outline of previous projects, specific work previously performed or currently being performed and any in-house research and development effort relevant to this project; (2) Personnel: Name, professional qualifications and specific experience of technical personnel who may be assigned as principal investigator and/or project officer; (3) Facilities: Availability and description of special facilities required to perform in the technical areas under consideration. Any other specific and pertinent information as pertains to this particular area of procurement that would enhance our consideration and evaluation of the information submitted. Offerors may send the above requested information via email to Jeanie.m.jennings@noaa.gov. The NAICS code for this requirement is 541690. All responsible sources may submit a response which will be considered by the Agency. All contractors doing business with the government must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) website. Vendors can register with SAM at the following website: https://www.sam.gov/ Statement of Work Background The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS) acting through its Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) has entered an inter-agency agreement (MOA-2012-027/8530) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) to estimate the use and market (e.g. sales/output, income and employment) and non-market (e.g. consumer's surplus or net economic user value) economic values of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems for the recreation-tourism ecosystem service. ONMS Chief Economist, Dr. Vernon R. (Bob) Leeworthy is leading the effort. The University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPR) is a member of the South Florida-Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). Professor Manuel Valdez-Pizzini is a well know expert in the socioeconomics of Puerto Rico's natural resources and will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) at UPR. "The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network is a national consortium of federal agencies, tribes, academic institutions, state and local governments, nongovernmental conservation organizations, and other partners working together to support informed public trust resource stewardship. The CESU Network includes more than 300 partners, including 13 federal agencies, in seventeen CESUs representing biogeographic regions encompassing all 50 states and U.S. territories. The CESU Network is well positioned as a platform to support research, technical assistance, education and capacity building that is responsive to long-standing and contemporary science and resource management priorities." "The seventeen CESUs bring together scientists, resource managers, students, and other conservation professionals, drawing upon expertise from across the biological, physical, social, cultural, and engineering disciplines (from Anthropology to Zoology) to conduct collaborative and interdisciplinary applied projects that address natural and cultural heritage resource issues at multiple scales and in an ecosystem context. Each CESU is structured as a working collaborative with participation from numerous federal and nonfederal institutional partners. CESUs are based at host universities and focused on a particular biogeographic region of the country." (http://www.cesu.psu.edu/) NOAA and EPA are partners in the South Florida-Caribbean CESU. The host university is the University of Miami (Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science). NOAA was added as a partner to this region via Amendment 4 of the Cooperative Agreement (2005) (http://www.cesu.psu.edu/unit_materials/cooperative_agreements/SOFL/SOFL_2005_agreement.pdf). CESUs have agreed to a favorable 17.5% overhead rate on all projects with CESU partners. Objectives This agreement has six major objectives: 1. Design survey questionnaires and sample designs for resident and visitor users of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems for recreation-tourist activities to support estimation of the market and non-market economic use values. 2. Get U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of survey questionnaires and sample designs. 3. Implement surveys and create databases and documentation for future NOAA, EPA, Puerto Rican Territory agencies, UPR, and local business uses of the survey information. 4. Develop reports on the results of the surveys. 5. Support undergraduate and graduate students in the development of future social scientists. Opportunities for both work experience in science and information that will support undergraduate honors papers, Masters Theses, and PhD. Dissertations. 6. Strengthen NOAA's relationships with CESUs for supporting NOAA's scientific and management needs. Scope Design and implement surveys of resident and visitor users of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems that will support estimation of the market and non-market economic valuation of the recreation-tourist ecosystem service. Tasks 1. Focus Groups Conduct four (4) focus groups; two (2) focus groups of residents of Puerto Rico that use Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems for recreation activities and two (2) focus groups of visitors to Puerto Rico that use Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystem for recreation-tourist activities. Each focus group should include eight (8) persons. The objective of the focus groups is to determine the attributes and levels of attributes of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems that affect the amount of use and value of use by residents and visitors. These attributes and levels of attributes would then be included in the questionnaires to be used in the surveys that will be sent to OMB for review/approval. A preliminary list of attributes and levels of attributes from a literature search conducted by NOAA/ONMS should be used as the starting point for the focus groups (provided by NOAA/ONMS). Videos and photographs of Puerto Rico's coral reefs for several attributes and levels of attributes will also be provided by NOAA/ONMS to test for what kinds of media would work in the planned surveys. Output: Audio and video and/or transcript of focus group results for delivery to NOAA/ONMS. 2. Questionnaire and survey support materials for the resident and visitor surveys. The objective is to develop final survey questionnaires and survey support materials (e.g. maps, activity lists, tally sheets, photos, illustrations, and videos) that will be used in the supporting statement that NOAA/ONMS will submit to OMB for review/approval and any changes requested by OMB before implementation of the surveys. For the resident survey, the survey will be done face-to-face in-house of respondents using a paper questionnaire. This survey will include information on socio-demographic profiles (e.g. place of residence, age, sex, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, household income, household size, number of adults 18 or over in household, number under 18 in household, household type, boat ownership, size of boat in feet and memberships in organizations) and activities household members participated in while using coral reef ecosystems for recreation. Activity profiles should include participation by respondent and number of other household participants and use measured in person-days of use (one person doing an activity for any part of a day or a whole day) by activity (e.g. snorkeling, SCUBA diving, fishing, and wildlife viewing/nature study) for five regions of Puerto Rico (map of five regions to be developed by UPR with help from NOAA/ONMS). Mailback surveys should be conducted for residents to obtain the following type of information: Expenditure profiles while undertaking recreational use of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems, non-market economic values and how these values change with changes in coral reef attribute levels, and importance-satisfaction ratings for up to 25 natural resource attributes, facilities and services. The 25 natural resource attributes, facilities and services will be selected in consultation with local communities. Mailback surveys are given to a household member while conducting the in-house survey and should be self-addressed, postage paid questionnaires. For the resident surveys, the ones to be implemented should be done in Spanish, but versions should be produced in English for documentation and application for OMB approval. For the visitor survey, the same types of information obtained from residents of Puerto Rico should be obtained. Because of the difference in method of surveying visitors, some additional materials will be required. Internet Panels will be used for visitors to obtain expenditures profiles, non-market economic valuation and how these values change with changes in coral reef attribute levels, and importance-satisfaction ratings on up to 25 natural resource attributes, facilities and services. Internet Panel members should be recruited by surveys at the airports, cruise ship docks and ferries leaving Puerto Rico as visitors are ending their trips to Puerto Rico. This will require the development of tally sheets for estimating the proportion of visitors of Puerto Rico that use Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems for recreation-tourist activities. A short-form questionnaire similar to the one used by NOAA/ONMS in the Florida Keys should be adapted for use in Puerto Rico. The short-form includes socio-demographic profiles and activity profiles. It is important here to identify if the visitor has Internet access and would agree to participate in the Internet Panel. E-mail addresses and telephone numbers should also be obtained so they can be provided to the contractor implementing the Internet Panels. Mailback questionnaires similar to the resident surveys should also be developed for visitors that do not have Internet access or would prefer to do mailback surveys instead. Outputs: Draft questionnaires and supporting materials to be included in supporting statement to OMB by NOAA/ONMS for review/approval and final questionnaires and supporting materials for survey implementation. 3. Implement Surveys For residents of Puerto Rico, a minimum of 1,000 completed interviews in-house from randomly selected households across all of Puerto Rico that used Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems for recreation activities over the previous 12-month period. For the mailback surveys, the following minimum number of returned and completed questionnaires is needed for each of the following types of information: a. Expenditure Profiles: 300 b. Non-market economic values: 500 c. Importance-Satisfaction Ratings: 100 It may be possible to combine information from and b, or a and c in a questionnaire. For visitors to Puerto Rico, a minimum of 500 per season recruited into the Internet Panels. There are two seasons: Winter (December - May) and summer (June - November). These should be stratified across type of access to Puerto Rico (e.g. airports, ferries and cruise ships). For the visitor surveys, UPR will assist in getting permissions to conduct surveys at airports, ferries and cruise ships docks by the appropriate authorities. There may be a need to get security clearances for those conducting the interviews at each survey site. In addition, for each survey access type (e.g. airport, ferries, and cruise ship) UPR will need to obtain population data by season for air enplanement data (number getting on flights leaving Puerto Rico), number of people on ferries departing Puerto Rico, and number on cruise ships that stop in Puerto Rico. This combined with tally sheet information will allow for extrapolating survey sample results to population estimates. Outputs: Databases and documentation of resident and visitor surveys. Electronic Databases can be in one of the following formats: SAS, SPSS, ACCESS, DBASE or other popular database format. Documentation should be in portable document format (pdf). Air enplanement, ferry passengers and cruise ship passenger counts by season could be in Excel format or one of the other formats listed above. 4. Develop Reports Summarizing Survey Results Separate reports should be developed for residents and visitors. Information should include results of the surveys (sample sizes, number of responses, and survey response rates), socio-demographic profiles of coral reef users and activity profiles of users. In addition, reports should include expenditure profiles and summaries of importance-satisfaction ratings. The reports should be done together with NOAA/ONMS. Outputs: Two reports, one for residents and one for visitors. Delivery The schedule of delivery of all items will be determined jointly by UPR and NOAA/ONMS since the surveys require OMB review/approval which neither UPR nor NOAA/ONMS has control. 1. Audio and video and/or transcript of focus group results for delivery to NOAA/ONMS. 2. Draft resident and visitor survey questionnaires and supporting survey materials for inclusion in supporting statement to OMB review/approval. Delivery to NOAA/ONMS. 3. Final resident and visitor survey questionnaires and supporting survey materials after any changes requested by OMB in review/approval process. Resident survey materials in both Spanish and English versions. Delivery of resident and visitor survey materials to NOAA/ONMS. Visitor survey questionnaires and supporting survey materials to sub-contractor doing Internet Panels. 4. Databases and documentation of resident and visitor surveys. Electronic Databases can be in one of the following formats: SAS, SPSS, ACCESS, DBASE or other popular database format. Documentation should be in pdfs. Air enplanement, ferry passengers and cruise ship passenger counts by season. Deliver to NOAA/ONMS on CD-ROM. 5. One report for residents and one report for visitors summarizing results of the survey. Security Possible security clearances for survey interviewers conducting interviews at airports, ferry docks and cruise ship docks. Travel Project manager/survey coordinator will have to travel for meetings with Puerto Rican Territorial government agencies, airports, ferries and cruise ship offices to discuss project and obtain permissions and security clearances. Interviewers will have to travel to visitor survey sites and interviewers to Puerto Rican households to conduct interviews. Place of Performance UPR-Mayaguez, survey sites for visitors (e.g. airports, ferry docks, and cruise ship docks), homes of residents of Puerto Rico for survey interviews. Period of Performance 21 months from data of contract approval. 1. IT Security Requirements The Contractor is required to meet the DOC IT Security Program Policy & Minimum Implementation Standards (http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm). The Contractor is required to meet Department of Commerce's IT Security Program Policy & Minimum Implementation Standards IT Security requirements for certification and accreditation (C&A) of the contractor system (for more information, see DOC ITSPP section 6.2.1 at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P919_108188, and Appendix H at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P4608_441377) as well as their responsibilities for participating in the development of a System Accreditation Package (SAP) (for more information, see DOC ITSPP section 6.5.2 at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P1167_151660) The COTR and the Contractor must determine the security impact level of the IT system as High, Moderate, or Low (for more information, see DOC ITSPP section 3.4.1, online at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P537_59784) as outlined in NIST FIPS-199 (http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips199/FIPS-PUB-199-final.pdf). The COTR and the Contractor must ensure that a federal program official is appointed to formally authorize operation of the system in accordance with DOC ITSPP section 6.2.5 (online at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P1039_123891). The Contractor must provide timely submission of deliverables, compliance with personnel screening requirements (if applicable), maintenance of secure system configurations and participation in annual IT security assessments to ensure compliance with SAP, and appropriate termination activity as appropriate. Annual assessments are required by DOC ITSPP section 5.5.2 (online at http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/ITSIT/DOC-IT-Security-Program-Policy.htm#P855_98182) The Contractor must consider IT Security controls throughout the lifecycle of this contract as outlined in NIST Special Publication 800-64 (http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-64/NIST-SP800-64.pdf). Special Contract Conditions The survey data collected by the contractor and which will be provided to NOAA on CD-ROM shall be used only for carrying out the provisions of this contract. Information on individuals contained in such material shall not be divulged or made known in any manner to any person except as may be necessary in the performance of this contract. Disclosure to anyone other than an authorized officer or employee of the contractor shall require written approval of the contracting officer's representative.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NOAA/CASC/NCNC6000-13-01072/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Puerto Rico, United States
- Record
- SN03137938-W 20130807/130805235203-a2eac9be195860b67ceddea6f94dadc8 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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