Community Hydrologic Prediction System (CHPS) Infrastructure and Support

The purpose of a Sources Sought (SS) is to improve small business access to acquisition information and to enhance competition by identifying contracting and subcontracting opportunities.  The Government may use the information obtained from this notice to gain insight into industry capabilities and other market information.  The draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) is attached to the sam.gov posting to provide additional context to the capability areas described within this SS.

The Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS), Office of Water Prediction (OWP), has a requirement for Community Hydrologic Prediction System (CHPS) Infrastructure and Support. The NWS OWP collaboratively researches, develops, and delivers state-of-the-science national hydrologic analyses, forecast information, data, and decision-support services. NWS OWP provides guidance to support and inform essential emergency services, water management decisions, and coordinates and supports consistent water prediction activities. NWS OWP interface with a wide variety of partners and customers to support the NWS mission by collecting and distributing data.

CHPS refers to the full suite of software infrastructure used operationally to perform NWS hydrologic forecasting operations at all 13 NWS River Forecast Centers (RFCs) including FEWS infrastructure software that is developed, owned, and maintained by Deltares, an institute in The Netherlands.

Key criteria include:

1). Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) infrastructure software.

2). Office of Hydrologic Development (OHD) Core, (otherwise known as “OHD Core”) refers to Government-maintained, FEWS compatible software for modeling and input data.

3). 3rd party models adapted from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Hydrologic Engineering Center (specifically, Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS), and Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Reservoir System Simulation (HEC-ResSim) HEC-RESSIM).

4).The contractor shall provide to the Government the analysis, definition, design, development, planning administration, training, and any other support or item required for the development, implementation, operation, and maintenance of FEWS-based water resources, river, and flood forecast services. 

5). The infrastructure and support criteria includes:

• Daily Operational Support and Maintenance
• Other Subject Matter Expert Support Services
• FEWS Stable Builds which include:

1. Enhancements Software Development and Delivery
2. Beta Testing and
3. Training and
4. Documentation

• FEWS Patches
• FEWS Evaluation Build
• Creation of Monthly Contract Status Report and LOE Spend Plan
• Quality Control Plan

6). The Contractor shall also provide the necessary labor and resources to accomplish tasks in the following general areas of work:

• Daily Operational Support and Maintenance
• Other Subject Matter Expert support services

Are you capable of providing the key criteria? In order to gather information from industry, the agency is requesting interested firms to provide, in writing, a brief narrative and documentation to support your firm's capability meeting the key criteria of this requirement and include your firm's name, address, point of contact, telephone number, Unique Entity ID Number (UEID), and business type and size (i.e., small, large, non-profit, educational, and so forth).

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541511 –  Custom Computer Programming Services. 

Please be advised that your participation in this SS is not required to ensure participation in future solicitations and contract awards. Participation in this SS is voluntary and the Government will not reimburse participants for any expenses associated with their participation in this SS. There is no commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation as a result of this SS. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review.

Detailed information must be submitted by email to the Contract Specialist Jeanne Cassidy at

jeanne.cassidy@noaa.gov and the Contracting Officer Angela Royster at angela.royster@noaa.gov, by 3:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday, February 6, 2023.