1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services, or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.
2. Definition of the requirement
The Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has a requirement to: develop and maintain a national hydrographic / hydrospatial network. This is a geospatial product covering the extent of Canada with data that represents surface water features (i.e., lakes, rivers) and their connectivity. This network is critical for hydrologic and in many cases hydraulic modelling (i.e., flood inundation modelling, flood hazard mapping).
The existing National Hydrographic Network (NHN; https://natural-resources.canada.ca/science-and-data/science-and-research/earth-sciences/geography/topographic-information/geobase-surface-water-program-geeau/national-hydrographic-network/21361).), a dataset produced and maintained by NRCan, is extremely deprecated in most regions of Canada, and in many ways is not suitable for analysis purposes (such as hydrologic / hydraulic modelling). The Canadian Hydrospatial Network (CHN) is being developed by NRCan to replace the NHN with new and improved features, connectivity, and associated attributes.
The work will involve the following: automatically extracting high resolution hydrospatial network features (i.e., flowpaths, catchments, points of connection, surface water polygons for lakes and large rivers) from relatively recent, high resolution source data (i.e. digital elevation models – DEMs; aerial / satellite imagery). Features will need to be validated and connected into a network. Other attributes of the network, including but not limited to stream order, will also need to be automatically calculated with advanced tools.
Context Specific to this Contract:
To provide context that is more specific to this contract, please note that the following methods, tools and / or workflows, and environments have been or will be in development by the CHN team:
The automatic extraction of stream vector geometry from DEM sources, using appropriate analytical methods which has been developed based on extensive use of WhiteboxTools Open Core
The derivation of stream properties on both the results of automatic extraction in (A) and existing stream vector networks provided by partners. Stream properties include ‘USGS value added attributes’ and other potentially useful properties of the network.
Validation tools to ensure the quality of the final data products which are only beginning to be developed internally.
Production environment that is safe and is not costly to maintain.
To build required workflows and product on software that is freely available and maintained. Thus, enabling partners, contributors, and others to freely use our methods and tools.
Required Tools:
To partially satisfy our needs specified in (B) and (C) the following is required:
A software tool that will create a vector representation of outlets, confluences, and channel heads for a hydrologic network. It also must calculate and assign useful hydrological attributes to a vector representation of the stream network, for each stream segment or node. These hydrological attributes must include:
inlet and outlet node identification
distance to the outlet
multiple stream orders (i.e., Horton, Shreve, Strahler, Hack)
total upstream channel length
mainstem identification
unique identifier for each tributary
This tool must be easily extensible if additional attributes are required.
A software tool that repairs topological errors in vector flow path data that can occur when using automated extraction methodologies. The tool must correct common errors so that headwater flow paths are connected properly to downstream confluences. Specifically, this tool must:
connect dangling tributary vectors that are not connected to a downstream flow path.
correct tributary flow path geometries that overshoot the confluence point.
join vector arcs that connect at arbitrary non-confluence points along stream segments.
split an arc where a tributary stream connects at a mid-point in order to create a proper confluence where the two upstream tributaries converge into a downstream segment.
Both tools must be:
Open source, and openly available
Fully operational and free of software bugs that would impair their primary operation.
Owned and maintained by the company that produces them.
Compatible with our existing workflows and environment: specifically, they need to be:
Cross-platform (i.e., work on Linux and Windows) in order to be used in our HPC (High Performance Computing) environment.
Written using a concurrent method (i.e., allowing multithreading / multiprocessing) allowing us to better leverage the HPC environment by taking advantage the large number of processors available to reduce operating time, while simultaneously guaranteeing that there are no memory leaks.
Scalable to leverage Federal HPC resources.
Developed by April 30, 2023, for CHN project timelines to be met.
Required Services:
Because a large portion of the CHN development workflow utilizes tools in the WhiteboxTools open core and wants their project partners and contributors to be able to utilize the Whitebox Tools Open Core software, the CHN team requires the following services:
Prioritized modifications, debugging, and other updates on WhiteboxTools software that are a part of the CHN development workflow.
Application of these changes in the WhiteboxTools primary core that is currently under the ownership and authority of Whitebox Geospatial Inc.
Update the official online documentation for WhiteboxTools related to tools as they are modified under this contract.
Provide advice on appropriate tools that are available from WhiteboxTools and related methods for developing various aspects of the CHN.
Objectives:
The objectives of this contract are to:
Have two new open-source tools created / made available to aid the CHN project with their development objectives.
Have services available to implement modifications, debugging, and updates for WhiteboxTools open core tools, as well as consultation on these tools and methods, prioritized in a service agreement.
Related official online documentation for WhiteboxTools will be updated as tools are modified.
Advice will be provided on appropriate tools that are available from WhiteboxTools and related methods for developing various aspects of the CHN.
Constraints:
Ability and authority to apply bug fixes to the official software repository of WhiteboxTools so that any users have access to the fixed tools.
Expertise in the Rust programming language: WhiteboxTool development and modifications are done in the programming language called Rust which is a recent and not very common programming language.
Open-Source Solutions: CHN is developing all feature extraction workflows to use open-source tools and software so that they can be shared openly with partners, contributors, and the public.
Time: CHN is expected to have a fully automatic feature extraction workflow developed by June 30, 2023. To meet this target timeline, we require the two tools mentioned in this contract to be available to our team by April 30, 2023.
Funding: Constraints exist around funding for CHN development, and therefore for funding this contract.
3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:
The supplier must demonstrate:
Having the authority to apply changes to the WhiteboxTools official software repository.
Having experience developing geospatial analysis and feature extraction workflows related to Hydrospatial networks.
Having experience providing advice on the methods and tools required to extract hydrospatial data.
4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement:
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)
5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier:
The supplier mentioned in section 11 below is the only known supplier that meets the mandatory criteria set out in section 3 above.
Should Canada receive a statement of capabilities from a supplier that contains sufficient information to indicate that it meets the requirements set forth in this ACAN, a competitive process will be triggered with a technical and financial evaluation methodology of the bids proposed by the potential bidders.
6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception to the
Government Contracts Regulations
is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - only one person is capable of performing the work.
The supplier mentioned in section 11 is the only one able to meet all of the criteria identified in Section 3 above.
7. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons
The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the:
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article: 513.1(b) (iii);
Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) – Article(s) Kbis-09 (b),Article Kbis-09 (c)
Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement – Article(s): 1409 (b) (iii);
Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement – Article(s): 17.11 2 (b) (iii)
Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement – Article 14.3, Under the Revised GPA - Article XIII, 1 (b) (iii);
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement – Article(s) 16.10 (b) (iii)
Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) – Article(s1409 (b) (iii)
8. Ownership of Intellectual Property
Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.
9. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date
The proposed contract is for a period from contract award March 31, 2024, with three one-year option periods.
10. Cost estimate of the proposed contract:
The estimated value of the contract, including option(s), is $170,000 (GST/HST extra).
11. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier
Whitebox Geospatial Inc., 1143 Barleymow St., Mississauga, ON L5V 1P2
12. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.
13. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities
The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is March 23, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EDST.
14. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities
Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to: Brenda Harlow
Procurement Specialist
Brenda.Harlow@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
