Calgary Spatial and Temporal Exposure Modeling (Calgary STEM) Study

HEALTH CANADA ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE

TITLE: Calgary Spatial and Temporal Exposure Modeling (Calgary STEM) Study

SOLICITATION NUMBER:  1000170458

1.  The purpose and explanation of an ACAN

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada contracting authorities to post a notice on Buy and Sell, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a good, service or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.

2.  Rights of suppliers

Suppliers who believe that they are fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities clearly demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If there is a reasonable level of evidence regarding capability, the requirements will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.

3.  Proposed Contractor

University of Calgary  
Department of Geography                      
2500 University Drive Northwest
T2N 1N4 Calgary, Alberta, Canada                     

4.  Definition of Requirements or Expected Results

•	The contractor will use descriptive spatial analytical methods, including clustering and visualization (Anselin, 1998) to provide a summary assessment of air pollution in Calgary.  This assessment will include pollutants of interest for subsequent analysis, proposed dates for field data collection, and a thorough analysis of spatial characteristics of data monitors and air pollution.

•	The contractor will use kriging and other geostatistical analytical tools (Davis, 2002) to identify undersampled areas. The results of these geostatistical model will be combined with location/allocation techniques (Kanaroglou et al., 2005) to optimize the allocation of monitors in undersampled areas.  The contractor will provide the geostatical model and location/allocation module. 

•	The contractor will use the location/allocation models to identify suitable sampling sites, and will use field sampling and local knowledge to create and maintain an operational network of monitors to collect air pollution data for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), black carbon, and PM-related metals and trace elements at approximately 125 sites in summer 2015 and winter 2016.  


•	In addition, the contractor will collect monthly samples at four locations within the City of Calgary for a one-year period covering the summer and winter monitoring campaigns.  Air monitoring data will be provided to Health Canada in the form of a digital database.

•	The contractor will use spatial regression analysis integrated with other spatial analytical tools (Anselin, 1988) to estimate and calibrate land use regression (LUR) models (Brauer et al., 2003) for NO2, VOCs, PM10 , PM2.5, black carbon, and selected PM-related metals and trace elements.  The contractor will develop these LUR models based on the collected air pollution data; land-use information from DMTI spatial, Census Canada, and City of Calgary; and meteorological data.  The contractor will provide Health Canada with the final LUR modelling surfaces and the surface files for model predictors considered in LUR model development.

•	The contractor will compare LUR models with previous LUR modeling data generated for Calgary in 2010-2011 and provide the results of this comparison to Health Canada in the form of a written report summarizing similarities and differences.  

•	In addition to the LUR models, the contractor will provide a detailed report in the form of two publishable manuscripts (approximately 7000-8000 words each) describing the field monitoring study, location allocation modelling, and LUR model development.  

•	Finally, the contractor will provide detailed LUR maps for selected pollutants, give two in-person presentations to local stakeholders including the Calgary Region Air Zone (CRAZ), and communicate project results informally with CRAZ members to support knowledge translation.

5.  Minimum requirements

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a Statement of Capabilities that it meets the following minimum requirements: 

a) The supplier must have experience (at least 10 years in the last 15 years) in conducting and publishing studies applying spatial and temporal multiple regression analyses of environmental health data using geographically weighted regression modelling and spatial autoregressive modelling to address potential sources of error and uncertainty in the models. 

b) The supplier must have experience (at least 3 years in the last 5 years) in conducting and publishing studies developing land-use regression models for nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and metals incorporating meteorology, and applying explicitly spatial methods including location allocation modelling to identify sampling sites, and geographically weighted regression modelling and spatial autoregressive modelling.

c) The supplier must have experience (at least 1 year in the last 5 years) conducting air quality assessment and knowledge translation activities with the Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ), who represent the local air zone managers and target knowledge users for this study. 

d) The supplier must have experience (at least 6 months in the last 5 years) as a committee member in the Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ).

e) The supplier must have ownership of, or access to, high resolution proprietary land-use and meteorological information required to model household level ambient pollution concentrations in Calgary, including a current license and access to data from the City of Calgary, DMTI spatial, and local weather stations.  Required data from these sources include annual population density, zoning classifications, road networks, traffic volume, industrial and commercial source locations, as well as hourly wind speed and direction for 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2016.  

f) The supplier must have ownership of, or access to, proprietary data from land-use regression models for nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), and volatile organic compounds in Calgary, Alberta, to support comparison with updated models, and ownership of, or access to, air pollution data collected at continuous and passive monitoring sites managed by the Calgary Region Air Zone (CRAZ).

g) The supplier must have the in-house capacity and experience to use location-allocation modelling, combined with local knowledge, to obtain an optimal monitoring network for characterizing spatial pollutant gradients in Calgary.   

h) The supplier must have the in-house capacity and experience to establish and maintain an operational air monitoring network of approximately 125 sites in the Calgary air zone to collect air pollution data in summer 2015 and winter 2016, as well as monthly monitoring at four non-surveillance site locations in the City of Calgary. 

i) The supplier must have the in-house capacity and experience to develop season-specific, spatially explicit land-use regression models (e.g., including geographically weighted and spatially autoregressive methods) for nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, metals, and black carbon in Calgary, Alberta.  Furthermore, the supplier must have the in-house capacity and experience to incorporate temporal and seasonal information including meteorology and continuous air monitoring data in these spatially explicit LUR models. 

6.  Reason for non-competitive award

As per Section 6 of the Government Contracts Regulations (Treasury Board Secretariat Contracting Policy, Appendix B) or the limited tendering is only one person/ firm capable of performing the contract.

7.  Applicable trade agreements 

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)

8.  Ownership of Intellectual Property

Contractor will own the IP

9.  Period of the proposed contract

The services of the Contractor will be required from contract award for approximately (two years); the expected completion date of this project is the 15th day of March, 2017.

10.  Estimated value of the proposed contract

 
The total estimated value of the proposed contract should not exceed $100,000.00, including travel and living expenses (if applicable), and all applicable taxes.

11. Closing date and time 

The closing date and time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is April 22, 2015 at 2:00pm EDT 

12.  Contact Person

All inquiries with regard to this Notice must be addressed by e-mail to:

Name: Cheryl Moss
E-Mail: cheryl.moss@hc-sc.gc.ca