SOUGHT SYNOPSIS W912HZ23SS0029.docx

SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS

TITLE: INCREASING THE RESILIENCE OF USMC RESOURCES USING NATURE BASED SOLUTIONS (NBS)

NOTICE TYPE: SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS

Source Sought Number: W912HZ23SS0029

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has a requirement for the above subject. THIS IS A NOTICE FOR SOURCES SOUGHT ONLY. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT SEEKS INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY, WHICH WILL BE USED FOR PRELIMINARY PLANNING PURPOSES. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL OR INVITATION FOR BID. THERE IS NO BID PACKAGE, SOLICITATION, SPECIFICATION OR DRAWINGS AVAILABLE WITH THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A PROCUREMENT COMMITMENT BY THE U.S ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE. NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT. REPONSE IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY; NO REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT OR ANY FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION REQUESTS. RESPONDENTS WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED OF THE RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION.

The purpose of this synopsis is to gain knowledge of interest, capabilities, and qualifications of various members of industry, to include the Small Business Community: Small Business, Section 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUB-Zone), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Economically Disadvantaged (ED/Woman Owned (WO), Woman Owned (WO) and Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB). The Government must ensure there is adequate competition of responsible firms.

Project Information: The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center-Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) leverages the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) program that supports implementation and assessment of nature-based solutions (NBS) for the purpose of reducing impacts from natural hazards (e.g., coastal storms, floods, desertification, drought, wildfire, etc.). The use of NBS rather than conventional engineered structures, where appropriate, provides a suite of benefits in addition to just engineering function. These additional benefits include carbon sequestration potential, habitat creation, enhanced ecological services, additional resilience for military mission, and increased societal value (e.g, recreation).

Coordinated investment in both built and natural infrastructure are essential to sustain readiness and mission resilience across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the twenty-first century.

The EWN program is seeking expertise to pursue development of NBS at three installations: Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Beaufort, Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH), and MCAS Cherry Point. The Contractor shall pursue opportunities to identify and deploy NBS for the purpose of creating more resilience for US Marine Corps installations and their mission, particularly as climate change poses increasing challenges. The Contractor shall develop NBS project sites at the respective installations (Table 1). Table 1. US Marine Corps Installations and Associated NBS Projects

1. Contractor Personnel, Disciplines, and Specialties

The Contractor shall accomplish the assigned work by employing and utilizing qualified personnel with appropriate combinations of education, training, and experience with knowledge in a broad array of disciplines including, but not limited to: policy, planning, landscape architecture, ecology, geology, hydrology, ecological and hydrodynamic modeling, and project management as it relates to NBS development and natural infrastructure. This work shall be executed by a contractor with the following qualifications:

1.1. Must have demonstrated a minimum of five years’ experience implementing major resilience efforts (i.e. water, energy, coastal protection) in support of DoD military installation master or natural resource planning.

1.2. Must have demonstrated a minimum of three years’ experience with coastal resilience efforts in support of DoD and/or other Federal government agencies (e.g., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]).

1.3. Must have experience with using sediment in development of NBS designs in coastal systems.

1.4. Must have demonstrated a minimum of three years’ DoD, state, or other outside government agency experience with organization, coordination, and planning of large and diverse stakeholder (defined as greater than three organizations outside your company in a single effort) and partnering working groups for the purpose of pursuing development of NBS.

1.5. Must have demonstrated a minimum of three years’ experience with development of NBS field study plans (development, scoping, design) and collection of field data and other data such as wind, wave, weather, and current forces that informs decision making tools such as carbon sequestration models, hydrodynamic and sediment transport models, digital elevation models.

1.6. Must have demonstrated a minimum of three years’ experience with developing detailed health and safety procedures and associated documentation for diverse data collection, surveying, land planning, and/or natural resource planning associated with field-based activities conducted on a military installation, to include coordination with designation installation points-of-contact (POC) responsible for mission and training operations.

2. Task Descriptions

2.1. Initial Phase Meetings and Outreach

As part of the initial and ongoing efforts to understand the needs of the installation and stakeholders, outreach and coordination are expected to occur. Stakeholder engagement will be critical to successfully implement the projects shown in Table 1 and develop design plans at the selected sites. Engagement efforts may include on-site or virtual meeting/workshop formats, which will be guided by project complexity and installation needs. Media and articles, landscape renderings, posters and/or short videos may be developed to share information on the data collection and project design process.

2.2. Study Development and Regulatory Compliance for Initial Phase Field Efforts

In support of subsequent tasks and project development, the Contractor will work with USMC and other stakeholders (as applicable) to develop a field study plan to collect, review, analyze and evaluate desktop and field data/information specific to each USMC project/site(s). This effort should begin with a desktop review of human and natural landscape systems in the vicinity of the project area(s) to understand potential opportunities for, and challenges to, achieving enhanced ecological, mission support, and recreational performance for NBS designs. Once available desktop data has been collected and analyzed, a field study plan will be developed to collect additional site-specific field data which may include small scale projects meant to simulate NBS alternatives. Once implemented, these small-scale projects can then be evaluated for efficacy, habitat value, mission compatibility, and community acceptance – the field study plan will outline performance metrics and associated measurement methods/techniques.

In addition to the small scale simulated NBS project implementation, the field study plan will outline other field data to be collected including necessary information to populate carbon sequestration models, hydrodynamic and sediment transport models; digital elevations models; calculations to understand wind, wave, weather, and current forces; as well the design and permitting phases of the project. An essential component of this work is also ensuring mission resilience; therefore, the field study plan will include direction for coordinating with installation representatives to collect data necessary to determine and understand the current and potential future missions for each installation is necessary. Identification of restrictions related to security and sensitive military operation areas, and other sensitive environments and cultural resource areas, will also occur.

Where possible, the field study plan will outline techniques related to the collection of data related to indigenous or traditional/local ecological knowledge. This information will provide an additional understanding as to the current ecological/biological conditions within a site as well as potentially provide a longer-term assessment of the dynamic coastal environment which will help focus short- and long-term design objectives related to improving resilience to a changing climate.

This task will also identify and apply for needed permits or regulatory compliance for the initial phase field effort (i.e., permits for sediment sampling, equipment placement, etc.). The Contractor shall be responsible for obtaining any permits that are required for successful project completion.

2.3. Initial Phase Field Study Deployment and Conceptual Design Development

Once the field study plan is approved for each project site, the field study effort will be implemented to address data gaps identified in the desktop analysis and establish baseline conditions within the project site. This field data will also inform the Basis of Design from which the Contractor’s team of engineers and scientists will develop restoration designs and specifications which will help inform how NBS can be employed at USMC installations.

Following the collection of field data, the Contractor shall develop recommendations for conceptual designs and prepare a Study Report for each individual project site which will provide sufficient baseline data to assist in the development of the NBS design. The report will describe the methods used and data collected under Task 2.3 and will include maps and figures to be used in subsequent tasks. The Government may comment on Report based on previous designs that were generated by the Government. It is not expected that results of the initial phase, small-scale NBS will be available to inform further development of conceptual designs, but instead it is expected that these results will support subsequent design and permitting tasks.

2.4. Health and Safety and Mission Coordination for Initial Phase

In support of activities noted under Tasks 2.2 and 2.3, the Contractor will develop a detailed program-level health and safety procedures for activities. This includes coordination with mission and training, particularly on range sites to ensure that field activities are completed safely and in conformance with USMC requirements.

3. The North American Industry Classification System code for this procurement is 541620 which has a small business size standard of $19 million. The Product Service Code is F115.

4. Small Businesses are reminded under FAR 52.219-14, (Deviation 2019-O0003), Limitations on Subcontracting. Firm will not pay more than 85% of the amount paid by the Government for contract performance, excluding the cost of materials, to subcontractors that are not similarly situated entities. Any work that a similarly situated entity further subcontracts will count toward the 85% subcontract amount that cannot be exceeded.

5. Prior Government contract work is not required for submitting a response to this announcement.

6. FIRMS RESPONSE SHALL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

6.1. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) & Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) (This information can be obtained from your System for Award Management (SAM) Registration at www.sam.gov ).

6.2. Name of firm with address, phone, fax, e-mail address, and point of contact.

6.3. Indicate whether your firm will submit a bid for this project if set-aside for Small Business (SB), 8(a) Small Business Development Program, Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUB-Zone), Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Economically Disadvantaged (ED/Woman Owned (WO), Woman Owned (WO) Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB).

Firms responding to this announcement, who fail to provide ALL required information requested and outlined above, may be excluded from further consideration in the review and analysis for acquisition strategy determination.

Interested Firm’s shall respond to this announcement no later than May 25, 2023, at 10:00 AM (Central Time). All interested firms must be registered in SAM.gov to be eligible for award of Government contracts. Email your response to Ms. Sonia Boyd and Ms. Ronalda Burton at: sonia.j.boyd@usace.army.mil ronalda.burton@usace.army.mil

Reference Line SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS W912HZ23SS0029 image1.emf