Public Services and Procurement Canada is Seeking a Canadian Coastal Zone Information System – Digital Nova Scotia – Leading Digital Industry
Public Services and Procurement Canada is Seeking a Canadian Coastal Zone Information System

July 28, 2020

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is seeking a web accessible single platform solution to be used as a decision support system to provide cost-effective and sustainable solution to coastal and marine infrastructure planning, climate change risk assessment and adaptation in areas where PSPC is facing significant risks to coastal infrastructure due to climate change.

Challenge sponsor: Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
Funding mechanism: Contract
Opening date: July 28, 2020
Closing date: September 9, 2020, 14:00 Eastern Daylight Time

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Problem statement

PSPC is seeking to develop an integration coastal information portal of various sources and data types into one place along with required built-in computational tools, which will be used as a reliable one-stop decision support system for risk assessment and infrastructure design. It will also be a useful solution for decision making during emergency measure operations and disaster management in case of an extreme climate event.

PSPC provides technical services, expert advice and strategic planning for coastal and marine infrastructure, erosion protection and flood mitigation projects to federal departments (e.g., Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Transport Canada, Parks Canada, Indigenous Services Canada) with DFO being one of the most significant. DFO is responsible for about 1,008 harbours nationwide, which includes over 10,000 structures.

One of the major challenges that the department is facing is the availability and reliability of complex coastal datasets (e.g. hydrographics, wave, wind, extreme water levels, ice condition, etc.) to provide timely and cost-effective solutions to clients. For example, there are various offshore wave data available which need to transform to nearshore through modelling and validating for each project, which is cost-intensive and time consuming.

Another major challenge is predicting climate change vulnerability and risk assessment. To date, most studies on climate change in coastal environment are limited to sea level rise which is again widely varied depending on climate change scenarios and geographic locations. Extreme waves and storm surges will be more frequent and intensified in future due to climate change; and reliable information on these are necessary for risk assessment and mitigation.

The challenge will include quality-checked hydrographic data sets for visual interpretation, modeling and infrastructure planning. Data provided would be in either an ASCII XYZ (Easting, Northing, Depth) and/or NAD83CSRS projected in the appropriate UTM zone (Geodetic Coordinates could also be created — Lat, Long, Depth).

Essential (mandatory) outcomes

Proposed solutions must:

  • Be a web accessible single platform solution with access to a collection of datasets, digital maps, tables, illustrations and include built-in computational tools capable of systematically representing sites along coastal zones of Canada (including the Arctic).
  • Include tidal elevation data (higher high water large tide (HHWLT); lower low water large tide (LLWLT); Mean water level (MWL), and extreme water levels and storm surges for 1, 10, 25, 50 and 100 year return periods and maximum flood of record (as well as the ability to predict these going forward).
  • Include extreme nearshore wave climate of high resolution model outputs with directional distributions and return periods (i.e. 1, 10, 25, 50, 100 years) from varying governing directions for the sites under existing conditions and for climate change scenarios over the next 50 years and 100 years.
  • Be able to provide trends of changes of sea level rise, wind speed and ice thickness at the sites for the next 100 years (using 2020 as the base year) under various climate change scenarios (lower, medium and higher estimates).
  • Include available high resolution nearshore hydrographic datasets with georeferenced mapping/graphical interface capability for overlaying extreme wave climate maps and infrastructure plans,
  • Be able to extract or calculate nearshore coastal parameters at required point locations either from the available information in the system or using built-in computational tools.
  • Be able to include small craft harbors and any other government infrastructure sites located in or near lakes, rivers, and estuaries.
  • Be user friendly to extract, calculate, interpret and visualize the results and maps; and to incorporate new sites datasets, plans, reports, and drawings when they become available to update the system on a regular basis. It should be capable of displaying a graphical (map style) interface and the routines it completes should be able to be completed with minimal user selections/clicks/inputs with a Common Look and Feel (CLF) across platforms.

Additional outcomes

Proposed solutions should:

  • Have 3 dimensional (3D) and geo-referenced mapping/graphical interface.
  • Include all possible asset and existing infrastructure information.
  • Include available historical hydrographic datasets since 2000.
  • Include available geotechnical borehole logs and information.
  • Be compatible in terms of the ability to use and access the solution via WIN10 machines.
  • Be able to seamlessly access and load various databases, including data sets from ESRI (Environmental Systems
  • Research Institute) products as well as AutoDesk products at a minimum. Spatially this would mean that it should be able to deal with various geographic datum and projections where this information could vary across data sets.

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