A02.12 PWS Creation of SVP Webtool for MRC dated 20230831.docx

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION (CUI)

(BEFORE AWARD/OR MOD)

29 June 2023

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

CREATION OF A SHARED VISION PLANNING WEBTOOL FOR THE MEKONG RIVER COMISSION

1. BACKGROUND

Institute for Water Resources (IWR) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Field Operating Activity (FOA) located within the Washington, DC National Capital Region (NCR), in Alexandria, VA and with satellite centers in New Orleans, LA, Davis, CA, Golden, CO, and Pittsburgh, PA. IWR was created in 1969 to analyze and anticipate changing water resources management conditions, and to develop planning methods and analytical tools to address economic, social, institutional, and environmental needs in water resources planning and policy. IWR is currently responsible for a number water resources activities or programs, including evaluation of Civil Works (CW) strategic plans, CW policies and programs, investment and financial analysis, performance measurements and evaluations, infrastructure analysis, climate change and other water related activities. IWR provides technical assistance to Corps divisions, districts, laboratories, Federal agencies, international organizations, financial institutions and other countries, in encompassing a broad range of topic areas related to levee and dam safety, risk assessment, dredging requirements, port/waterway transport, aquatic ecosystem restoration, environmental stewardship, flood and drought risk management, emergency preparedness, watershed planning, regulatory, multipurpose water resources including hydroelectric power, water supply and reallocation, recreation, and other water and related land resources issues.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental organization for regional dialogue and cooperation in the Lower Mekong River Basin, established in 1995 based on the Mekong Agreement between member countries - Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The organization serves as a regional platform for water diplomacy and a knowledge hub of water resources management for the sustainable development of the region. USACE currently has a formalized agreement with the MRC to collaborate on a wide range of water resources management efforts. The MRC regional office is headquartered in Laos and each member country has their own committee office within their countries’ borders.

USACE and the MRC have been collaborating for almost a decade on shared vision Planning (SVP). SVP is a process that requires the collaborative development of a decision support tool – herein referred to as the SVP tool. The SVP tool is designed to support the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Basin Development Strategy (BDS) 2021-2030 at both the national and regional levels. The tool is being designed to enhance the ability by member countries to integrate and examine data from various MRC databases. The purpose is to provide access to data that facilitates dialogues across sectors and countries and serve as part of the MRC toolkit in support of the Basin Development Plan outcomes. As a result, it is very important to facilitate a collaborative development process of the SVP tool, which ensures the tool is designed for the user needs.

IWR seeks services and support from Arizona State University (ASU) with supporting the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in the enhancement of a Shared Vision Planning (SVP) webtool. This effort is being funded by the U.S. Department of State as a means for diplomacy through technical and scientific exchange.

SVP is a process that requires the collaborative development of a decision support tool – herein referred to as the SVP tool. The SVP tool is designed to support the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Basin Development Strategy (BDS) 2021-2030 at both the national and regional levels. The tool is being designed to enhance the ability by member countries to integrate and examine data from various MRC databases. The purpose is to provide access to data that facilitates dialogues across sectors and countries and serve as part of the MRC toolkit in support of the Basin Development Plan outcomes. As a result, it is very important to facilitate a collaborative development process of the SVP tool, which ensures the tool is designed for the user needs.

Arizona State University – Decision Theatre Laboratory (ASU), has been developing a web-based SVP tool that is currently hosted on the MRC web portal. The Decision Theater (DT) organizes researchers, policymakers, and the business community to better understand and explore solutions to complex issues facing society. Using data analytics and high-performance computing to drive software-integrated models, DT works with transdisciplinary partners to streamline big data and transform it into novel, interactive data visualizations.

The SVP tool was created to support the Mekong River commission member countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) in collaborating on transboundary basin issues and shared visioning towards solutions. This platform utilizes multi-focal dashboards to aid in supporting the level of cooperation between stakeholders both in a facilitated environment and asynchronously. It integrates a variety of data including geographic, hydrologic, socio-economic, hydrologic, and ecologic data, both historic and projected and visualizes it dynamically to increase transparency and understanding. Additionally, this tool utilizes a variety of processes already in use during the current basin planning process. It has been built in a way to decrease the barrier to entry to ensure all users are able to access the same data at the same time, thus minimizing the number of steps to get to common understanding.

The SVP tool was developed using a web framework that combines the React JS library and Python Flask. This framework operates within a containerized environment using Docker, ensuring consistent and portable deployments. PostgreSQL, along with the PostGIS extensions, is used for data storage and efficient querying of geographic data.

The React JS library provides a dynamic and responsive user interface, while Python Flask serves as the back-end framework, handling routing, request handling, and data processing. The interaction between the client-side React components and the Flask API enables real-time updates and seamless user experiences. Redis is utilized as a caching solution to improve performance, reduce latency, and enhance the overall user experience. By leveraging Redis's advanced features and data structures, the SVP tool gains additional functionality and scalability.

In terms of deployment, the application follows a microservice-based architecture, utilizing Docker containers. This approach allows for the breakdown of the application into smaller, loosely coupled services, ensuring consistency across different environments, and facilitating scalability. Custom bash scripts have been developed to automate various deployment tasks, simplifying the process, and enabling consistent and reproducible deployments.

Security is a critical aspect of the SVP tool. It incorporates the use of HTTPS protocol to enable secure communication by encrypting data transmitted between the website and the user's browser. Authentication is achieved through digital certificates issued by trusted authorities, assuring users of the website's legitimacy. Data integrity is maintained through safeguards against tampering during transmission. By providing secure communication channels and protection against security threats, the SVP Tool ensures a secure browsing experience for users.

In March-April 2023 the MRCS convened four national workshops at each of the member countries for feedback from the National Mekong Committees on the functional and capabilities of the SVP Tool. Significant feedback was provided at each of national workshops, which will require some reconfiguration of the SVP tool. This Performance Work Statement (PWS) lays out the tasks to update the SVP Tool based on feedback from MRC member countries.

2. SCOPE

The scope of this effort is to complete an interactive and collaborative SVP tool for the Mekong River Commission based on feedback from member countries. The contractor will collaborate with USACE-IWR technical points of contact for execution of this PWS and the MRCS Planning Division Team. The current structure of the SVP Tool has a series of tabs that allow the user to examine Mekong River projections (the Council Study) from different perspectives, and to compare with observations or current conditions (State of the Basin). These tabs are designed based on the user’s sector or regional interest, and generally allow the user to examine the contribution of river basin condition scores based on aggregates of Council Study metrics.

The PWS seeks to update the focus of the SVP Tool towards a more flexible ability to examine data centered around the State of the Basin and other existing conditions. This means that the tool will have fewer pre-defined maps, plots, tables, charts, and threshold values but have a greater ability to define thresholds, define indicators based on metrics of interest to different sectors and users, and have full flexibility to examine data through the selection of scores, raw data, or filtering based on season / years. This renewed focus is based on consultations with the National Mekong Committees.

In addition, a new Shared Visioning module will be implemented that allows users to discuss data, issues and facilitate joint efforts towards enhanced cooperation for the sustainable economic, social, and environmental objectives of the MRC under Climate Change.

3. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The following sub-sections provide details of various general requirements for this effort.

3.1. Non-Personal Services

The contractor shall provide strictly non-personal services and contractor employees are not subject to direct supervision and control by the Government. The contractor shall advise and support the Government but shall not make final decisions or certifications on behalf of the Government nor perform any inherently governmental functions. The contractor and its employees shall not represent the Government nor appear to represent the Government in performance of these contract services. Contractor personnel shall clearly identify themselves as contractor employees in all interactions during contract performance.

3.2. Place of Performance

All work will be performed at the contractor’s site.

3.3. Period of Performance

The period of performance for this task order is 10 months.

3.4. Materials

All materials, minus expendable supplies, purchased by the contractor with funds from this task order and used under this task order, become, and remain the property of the Government.

3.5. Travel

The contractor shall provide services necessary to plan and schedule travel and travel shall be reimbursed in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 31.205-46. The contractor shall be reimbursed for actual allowable costs and not to exceed the amount allowed in the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR). No fee is allowable on travel costs.

4. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS (TASK AREAS)

Task 1 (Wireframe) – The contractor shall develop the proofs of revised tabs and modules of the SVP Tool. The contractor shall develop the proofs for flexible charts, plots, tables, and maps, and on the overall layout of the SVP Webtool. These shall be presented to and approved by the MRCS. The blueprint will have a focus to evaluate the conditions (i.e., State of the Basin) of the Mekong River in support proactive planning needs based on the feedback from the MRCS and NMCs. The users should have the ability to examine the condition of parts of interest of the basin with the ability to overlay the forecasted outlook of development scenarios (i.e., the Council Study).

Task 2 (Mapping) – The contractor shall complete the mapping capabilities (and any supporting management options) of the tool based on NMC feedback. This includes the ability to plot aggregated indicator scores, as well as raw values (that will need to have normalizing options to observed differences in the data) for any metric of interest. The contractor will develop the capabilities that allows the MRCS to easily incorporate strategic GIS data layers to include, population centers and density, demographics, wetlands, land cover, dam location (size, purposes, and development status), etc. Data from the Council Study and State of Basin will be mapped to the appropriate GIS point or polygon. In addition, the tool will be able to access data from ‘Eyes on the Earth’ (eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/apps/earth/) that are relevant to water resources planning, and develop appropriate analytical capabilities from it. The extent of the map will be the mainstem of the Mekong River Basin and its tributaries. The MRCS should have the ability to add spatial layers with general simplicity that are of interest to the MRC. Key spatial layers include boundaries (i.e., basin, country, province, populations centers, mainstem and key tributaries, key topographic features), land cover, dams (size, purposes), and protected areas. Each spatial layer will have contextual attributes of interest by the MRC, which may be updated for new attributes. Data from all tables must have the ability to be mapped. Raw values will need different scaling processes (i.e., quantiles, logarithmic, etc.) for creating insightful color ramps.

Task 3 (Data Management) – Data must support the Mekong River Basin Indicator Framework (MRBIF) structure. This means that there are agreed upon ‘Strategic Indicators’. Data from the State of Basin Reports are ‘Monitoring Parameters’, which are used to define ‘Assessment Indicators’. Assessment indicators might also be defined by Council Study data to reflect on future potential basin outlooks. Several assessment indicators already define strategic indicators; however, the MRCS might work with member countries to develop additional strategic indicators with different sets of assessment indicators. The assessment indicators are defined by the monitoring parameters, which include ‘condition’, ‘changes-in-value’, or ‘contribution’ scores. Condition, changes-in-value, or contribution scores must be established by thresholds that are defined/approved by the MRCS. Thresholds help define different values of assessment indicators. Some thresholds are already well defined such as the PMFM, which provide straight forward assessment indicators. One monitoring parameter may have define different assessment indicators for the purpose of different strategic indicators. The contractor must build the capability to manage data to help implement the MRBIF framework. This means that the tool user must be able to examine monitoring parameters and assessment indicators, and that the MRCS must be able to manage the definitions of the thresholds that inform the scores.

Task 4 (Charts and Visualizations) – The contractor shall complete the functionality and capabilities to evaluate and examine data for existing State of the Basin 2018 (SOBR 2018) requirements, as well as other existing foundational data required by the MRCS and NMCs, the Council Study (CS), and provide the placeholders for data from upcoming State of the Basin Report 2023 (SOBR 2023). The types of charts and relevant visuals must be based on the needs for watershed planning as required by the MRCS and NMCs feedback national workshops March-April 2023. There are only three principal types of SOBR 2023 data that is stored in tables and represented in various types of charts as proposed in Task 1. The first type of SOBR 2023 data are collected from point monitoring stations and contain a value for each day or time of sampling. The second type of data are related to areas that change year to year, such as aquaculture production in provinces during the SOBR 2023 period of sampling. The third type of data are static values for given areas, such as areas of wetlands in a province, that would be re-examined during future SOBR efforts. The contractor must keep in mind of these data types that need to be visualized as well as mapped. The contractor must also keep in mind that SOBR data sets will be updated every five years, and that the tool must enable this updating under the known data structures / types. The MRBIF lays out the agreed types of data needed for the tool. The CS data should support tool users by integrating how conditions are evaluated with respect to outlooks under different development scenarios. Types of visuals should include line graphs, bar charts, scatter plots, and histograms depending on MRC requirements as approved in Task 1.

Task 5 (Shared Visioning) – The contractor will develop a module to facilitate cooperation and dialogue around issues, and joint activities or projects. This module will allow user to post different charts or maps in a personal dashboard, which can be shared for discussion among members. The MRCS will have the ability to facilitate discussion and highlight important insights. The goal is to provide a venue where issues and joint activities can be discussed and agreed upon. As a result, a user can post other supportive material to include videos, studies, line agency data, etc. For example, the shared visioning module can help prioritize areas for cooperation, types of analysis and data that are needed, scenarios that need to be modeled, discuss where and how joint projects might be developed, or recommend types of activities in a specific area. Specific dashboards of interest by the MRCS might be used to support Joint Council discussions.

Task 6 (Background) – The contractor will develop a module that helps the user understand all critical MRC documents, narratives, and MRC visions. In addition, the user manual will be in this module.

Task 7 (Technical Manual) – The contractor will develop a technical user manual to ensure that the MRCS has the capability to maintain the tool.

Option Task 8 (Regional Support) – The contractor will subcontract five experts in the region to be identified by the MRC for a period of 50 working days each (400 hours each). The experts will represent the Mekong River Commission Secretariat, the Cambodia National Mekong Committee, the Lao PDR National Mekong Committee, the Thailand National Mekong Committee, and the Vietnam National Mekong Committee. Their role would be to provide regional support in testing components under development for their feedback on tool development, validation of data, access to data sources, and development of the manual. The aim is to build regional capacity on the tool and enhance buy-in. This is an optional task to be authorized by USACE pending guidance from the U.S. Department of State.

5. DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERY SCHEDULE

The table below identifies a set of deliverables that are required under this task order.

6. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY (PRS)

7. SECURITY

The work will be UNCLASSIFIED and network or facility access is not required. The contractor(s) will not require a Common Access Card (CAC).

8. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

Attached are copies of the (1) feedback summary from the National Mekong Committee workshops of March-April 2023, (2) the Mekong River Basin Indicator Framework, which are guiding documents for the blueprint of the tool, and (3) Terms of Reference for Task 7.

9. CONTRACTING OFFICER REPRESENTATIVE AND/OR TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT (TPOC)

A contracting officer representative (COR) and/or technical point of contact (TPOC) will be appointed on each task order. The COR and TPOC have no authority to direct the contractor in any way to alter the contractual obligation. The contracting officer is the only individual authorized to make changes to the contract.

10. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Overhead costs must be no greater than 11%.

APPENDIX 1 outlines specific evaluation criteria for contract award.

11. INVOICING

The contractor is authorized to invoice as frequently as monthly; for work performed. The contractor shall append the final invoice with ‘Final” to indicate that no additional invoices will be received by the government.

Invoices should be sent to the following email addresses. Which ensures that a copy goes to the USACE finance office and a copy to the IWR budget officer:

guillermo.f.mendoza@usace.army.mil evan.ting@usace.army.mil CEFC-Q0Invoices@usace.army.mil DLL-CEIWRCONTRACT@usace.army.mil

APPENDIX 1:

CONTRACT EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

“CREATION OF THE SHARED VISION PLANNING WEBTOOL TO SUPPORT THE MEKONG RIVER COMMISSION”

All factors are given equal weight.

1. Technical Understanding and Approach: The contractor must illustrate how well do they understand the requirement and how would they execute it. It will be important to understand how the contractor will engage POCs in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. USACE will provide introductions to points of contact (POCs) for each National Mekong Committee and the MRC Secretariat, but the contractor needs to show how they will continue to engage with POCs and local venders (if necessary).

2. Staff Approach: The contractor must demonstrate how they will staff the requirements for a cost-effective execution of tasks.

3. Past Performance: The contractor must demonstrate that they have completed similar work in the past. Full credit for this criterion will be provided for contractors that have engaged in an international setting.

4. No greater than 11% overhead costs