SOW-Prgm_Support__Contractor----.pdf

Knowledge Services Division (KSD), National Agricultural Library (NAL) Attachment#1 Statement of Work for ARS Independent Contractor

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

for

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Program Support Contractor

Requesting Agency:

United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library (NAL) Knowledge Services Division (KSD)

Table of Contents

A. Introduction B. Specific Tasks C. Place of Performance D. Schedule of Deliverables

A. INTRODUCTION

The mission of the USDA, National Agricultural Library’s Knowledge Services Division (KSD) is to 1) advance knowledge discovery in agricultural sciences through the acquisition, preservation, and description of scientific datasets made accessible through the development of data management and visualization tools; and 2) to translate science discoveries for the understanding of audiences beyond the scientific and policy communities.

Flagship projects for the division include the LCA Digital Commons (www.lcacommons.gov); an emerging Bioenergy Digital Commons; and the i5K Workspace. KSD is the newest division within the National Agricultural Library getting its start on November 11, 2012. As a newly emerging division, much of the initial work in the coming few years will be devoted to the establishment of key programs, services, and products.

B. SPECIFIC TASKS

All tasks listed will be ongoing throughout the timeline of this contract. Specific requirements with specified deadlines will be communicated to the Contractor through the Government Technical Point of Contact (GTPOC) within a reasonable time frame.

The Contractor shall:

1. Research database applications to assist program staff to identify the data elements, utility, and functionality of science-based computer applications for the purposes of designing a conceptual data model for a data portal to support the data management needs of bioenergy researchers.

2. Research information to fill information gaps for datasets providing U.S.

agricultural production data in life cycle assessment compatible formats.

Datasets will be publicly available through the www.lcacommons.gov database and Web site.

3. Assist through conducting online research and subject knowledge, to cross-walk data emerging from diverse sources into a developing interactive tool for the reporting of Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) sustainability indicators for specific fuel paths and projects.

4. Assess the application of GIS tools for the mapping of data layers (e.g., soil type, water stress) to the crop production datasets in the LCA Digital Commons.

http://www.lcacommons.gov/ http://www.lcacommons.gov/

5. Assist in researching enterprise crop budgets as data sources for life cycle inventory datasets. As part of this task, the contractor will seek published sources in peer reviewed journals and government statistical databases to identify ancillary data to corroborate and validate the accuracy of crop budgets.

6. Assist with the development and enhancement of metadata to effectively document scientific datasets.

7. Assist with system tests of prototype data portals; and other applications;

provide feedback on usability for user interfaces; other services to include data loading as needed.

8. Other duties include: review of the LCA Digital Commons for recommended enhancements; assessment of ArcGIS applications for Knowledge Services Divisions datasets; research to fill data gaps and validate data sources; develop graphical representation of conceptual models.

C. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

NAL, Knowledge Service Division 10301 Baltimore Avenue 1st Floor Beltsville, MD 20705

D. SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

The Contractor will provide a monthly report/summary of deliverables completed to the Project Manager, which will be submitted to the GTPOC for review and feedback.

DELIVERABLES:

1. Contractor will create an inventory of strawberry enterprise crop budgets; and build a comparison tool to identify the similarity and differences between state-based budgets.

2. Contractor will deliver a report with recommendations for mapping the data outputs from the Environmental Modeling Systems listed below to the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) sustainability indicators. The recommendations will match the GBEP main category (i.e.

environmental, social, or economic) for each data element output from the model. The report will also consider the similarities and differences in output between the models and the GBEP sustainability indicators.

Information about the GBEP sustainability indicators is available (see --http://www.globalbioenergy.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gbep/docs/In http://www.globalbioenergy.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gbep/docs/Indicators/The_GBEP_Sustainability_Indicators_for_Bioenergy_FINAL.pdf dicators/The_GBEP_Sustainability_Indicators_for_Bioenergy_FINAL.pdf

• Environmental Modeling Systems contractor is to use for this deliverable:

a. ALMANAC – Agricultural Land Management Alternatives with Numerical Assessment Criteria Model (http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=16601)

b. EPIC – Erosion/Productivity Impact Calculator (http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/car bon_seq/5c2.pdf)

c. SWAT – Soil and Water Assessment Tool (http://swat.tamu.edu/)

d. POLYSYS – Policy Analysis System (http://www.agpolicy.org/tools/format.pdf) e.Breakeven Model– A model to estimate the point at which there is no economic net loss or gain in growing a commodity crop (Under construction by ARS, Agricultural Economist).

http://www.globalbioenergy.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gbep/docs/Indicators/The_GBEP_Sustainability_Indicators_for_Bioenergy_FINAL.pdf http://www.globalbioenergy.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gbep/docs/Indicators/The_GBEP_Sustainability_Indicators_for_Bioenergy_FINAL.pdf http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=16601 http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/5c2.pdf http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/5c2.pdf http://swat.tamu.edu/ http://www.agpolicy.org/tools/format.pdf