Geopatial Anaylses and Web GIS Portal

Notice Type: Intent to Sole Source Intended Awardee: University of Alabama 739 University Blvd E Tuscaloosa, AL 3540 Title: Geopatial Anaylses and Web GIS Portal Solicitation#: NIHNR2401020 Notice of Intent: The National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), intends to negotiate with the University of Alabama, on a sole source basis to perform Collaborative research project between TIB and the University of Alabama to identify the relationship between built environment characteristics and global vehicle collision risk. Specifically, we will leverage Google Street View images and use advanced neural networks to extract relevant built environment characteristics from street images. We will use these data to quantify associations between built environment characteristics and global collision risk. NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE: The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 541360. The basis for restricting competition is in accordance with FAR 6.302-1 because only one source is reasonably available to satisfy agency requirements. This requirement is to maintain knowledge and obtain a high-caliber leadership development certification focused on providing the collaborative research project between the Tissue Injury Branch (TIB) and the University of Utah to perform a variety of data management and computer vision tasks that support the overall implementation of the Collision Vision Research Project. Background: NINR�s mission is to lead nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice and policy�achieving better health for everyone. Nursing research views people from multiple perspectives�from biological factors to the society in which they live. By bringing these perspectives together, nursing research seeks to understand and address a holistic picture of health. One of the pressing issues of our time are motor vehicle collisions. Each year 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world. Globally, crash injuries are the eighth leading cause of death for all age groups, and they are the top leading cause of death for young people aged 5-29 years of age. The United States also has higher rates of fatal vehicle collisions than most other high-income countries. Reduction in these crash rates would have powerful societal level impacts by protecting our young people, enabling them to contribute economically, politically, and socially to their communities. Fatal and nonfatal collisions will cost the global economy $1.8 trillion between 2015-2030. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on road traffic deaths is to half of them by 2030, but few countries are moving in the right direction towards meeting that goal. To provide this much needed data, our project will produce, for the first time, a global data repository that that provides roadway crash factors and risk level. We will leverage Google Street View images across the world and advanced neural networks to extract relevant built environment characteristics from street images. We will use these data to quantify associations between built environment characteristics and global collision risk. Objective: The specific study aims of Collision Vision are as follows: Aim 1. Develop computer vision techniques to produce vehicle collision risk indicators. Create areal-level indicators of pedestrian risk (e.g., crosswalks, sidewalks, streetlights) and bicyclist risk (e.g., bike lanes), and motor risk (e.g., number of lanes), from Google Street View images combined with other area measures such as sociodemographics and motorization. � Aim 2. Measure the accuracy of data algorithms and construct an interactive geoportal. Assess the accuracy of computer vision algorithms by comparing against manual annotations (produced via crowdsourcing and the research team). Algorithms will be modified in an iterative refinement process to maximize accuracy. Construct an interactive geoportal for data visualization and data sharing. � Aim 3. Utilize our global repository, Collison Vision, and a large collection of injury and fatality records to evaluate built environment impacts on motor vehicle collision risk. Hypotheses: Places with street designs allowing protected movement of pedestrians and bicyclists and speed dampening characteristics will have lower risk of injury and mortality. Scope of Work The Contractor shall perform a variety geospatial analyses task including collecting, processing, and analyzing spatial data and building Web GIS applications. Specifically, the contract will 1) build the sampling strategy to extract Google Street View images from all available global roads and 2) use popular Web GIS development tools (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and OpenLayers) to develop a responsive Web GIS application to host the spatial data generated from this project and disseminate the research projects to the public. The geoportal will be able to support various devices (desktop, laptop, and mobile devices). TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall be required to furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government, as needed to perform this Statement of Work (SOW). Work will be issued via request from the Contracting Officer (CO). Each request will provide the specific details and requirements necessary for completion of the work. The Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and the Program Task Leader (TL) will determine the tasks with the CO. 1. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION The Contractor shall: � Provide overall project management and communications, tracking, monitoring, and reporting on project status and progress. � Provide integration and coordination of all contract activities. � Provide assignment, supervision, and coordination of contractor staff. � Provide technical and administrative infrastructure to ensure the efficient planning, initiation, implementation, and timely completion of all projects carried out under the contract. � Recommend modifications to project requirements and timelines. � Notify the COR and CO of any problems encountered in completing the work within a request. � Plan and conduct status meetings with the COR at a minimum of monthly intervals via teleconference to review the status of approved projects and to discuss any matters relevant to the scientific (with COR and TL) and financial administration (with COR and CO) of the contract and future activities. � Prepare and distribute the COR status meeting agenda and meeting materials to COR and TL. � Provide a summary of all COR status meetings to the COR within 5 days of the meeting. 2. GEOSPATIAL ANALYSES AND GEOPORTAL CONSTRUCTION The Contractor shall work with the CO and COR to support NINR in geospatial analyses. A non-exhaustive list of examples of the type of work to be performed for each request are: 1) Build the geocoordinate sampling strategy to extract Google Street View images from all available global roads. Geocoordinates would be spaced approximately 100-200 meters apart down roads. 2) Construct a responsive Web GIS application to host the spatial data generated from this project and disseminate the research projects to the public. Tasks: Geospatial analyses and Web GIS applications. Task 1: Develop sampling strategy for United States roads. Using Geographical Information System (GIS) data, obtain road network data from Open Street Map and ESRI to create a dataset of all roads within the United States. Use Python code to systematically sample points every 100 meters along a road. Road nodes (intersections) and interpolated street segment points were kept as sample points. The resulting dataset that includes search points that will be used to collect Google Street View image data. Task 2: Develop sampling strategy for up to 122 countries. Using Geographical Information System (GIS) data, obtain road network data from Open Street Map and ESRI resulting in a global dataset of 101,221,823 roads which covers all 122 countries/regions with GSV image data. Task 3: Travel to National/International conference to present research findings. The contractor shall select one national or international conference to present research findings. The contract shall cover travel expenses as allowable. Task 4: Construct an interactive geoportal for data visualization and sharing. Geoportal. To further promote dissemination and usage of Collision Vision to the research community and the public, the contractor will construct a geoportal that supports mapping, analytics and sharing of built environment data. Geoportal users will be able to select built environment features and locations of interest to view and freely download data. The geoportal will have the following functionalities that allow users to: 1) download built environment data at various levels of aggregation including neighborhood and city levels, 2) map patterns in built environment characteristics and 3) view collision risk for specific roads (Figure 3). All roads with available data will have collision risk displayed and color-coded in green, yellow, orange, and red to indicate increasing levels of collision risk. The geoportal importantly supports open science by making the newly available data resources accessible and adaptable to the varying needs and interests of the research community. The geoportal, which will provide both online data distributing and interactive GIS mapping, addresses key needs of neighborhood researchers. Visitors to the geoportal will be able to select from a list of area-level characteristics (e.g., sidewalks, street lights, stop signs) and community boundaries to map and download. The default display will be a global map. However, users will be able to zoom in and out of maps to view places of interest around the world. They may also utilize a search tool that allows them to search for a city or country to view the map and data for those locations. Providing a geoportal that performs geographical analyses and produces maps and data will be valuable resource for public health researchers who are interested in further exploring place-based characteristics and incorporating such data into their research project but do not have extensive training in Geographic Information System (GIS). Secondly, bioinformatics can be intimidating to use especially if it is in a format that is unfamiliar to traditionally trained social scientists and public health researchers. While the data source for the geoportal will compose of terabytes of image data, the website will allow researchers to export summary area-level data that is smaller and ready for use at the user�s preferred level of aggregation (e.g., city, district). The geoportal will offer export of data in file formats such as csv files that have high usage and are also compatible with popular statistical packages. Third, while many neighborhood researchers utilize administrative boundaries such as census tracts or counties to examine local place-based characteristics, other researchers utilize boundaries developed by departments of city planning, transportation, police, and health to operationalize the neighborhood social and physical environment. Thus, allowing customization of neighborhood boundaries will increase the utility of Collision Vision. Researchers can obtain customizable neighborhood data from our dataset by using the geoportal�s drawing tool to delineate neighborhood boundaries. The geoportal will then perform analytics to create community-level measures (e.g., presence of sidewalks) for specified areas. Implementation of the geoportal system. The contractor will use popular web GIS development tools (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and OpenLayers) to develop the responsive front-end user interface so that the geoportal will be able to support various devices (desktop, laptop, and mobile devices). The relevant web services will be implemented with GeoDjango and deployed on the application server. The contractor will use the open-source database software PostgreSQL to manage the data and employ the open-source application server software package Apache Tomcat Server to host the application. The contractor will create a database catalog (or index file) containing the fields in our database to support data queries. To enable quick download of neighborhood data, they will process the data for the pre-defined neighborhood boundaries and store this subset online in manageable units. Additionally, to allow for the processing of customizable neighborhood boundaries, larger datasets consisting of raw image data files will be stored and will be processed as requested by users. The contractor will develop a data indexing algorithm to quickly retrieve and analyze the relevant data observations requested by the user. The geoportal extends the potential impact of Collision Vision by making the new global data resource more accessible, interactive, visually appealing, and adaptable to the different needs of the research community. Additionally, the contractor will strive to make components of the geoportal sustainable by using open-source software where available. The geoportal will be a valuable resource to neighborhood researchers and further advance the study of social determinants of health. Open access data on social and environmental factors remains difficult to find, especially for indicators that are constructed consistently across large geographies. Period of Performance: The period of performance for a base (12-months) and 3 (12-months) options periods. Procurement Classification (Service) Code: B � Special Studies and analysis � not R&D North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 541360 Responses: The proposed acquisition action is for items and services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 13.106-1 (b). If you believe you can provide the items or services, please forward capability statements to anita.edwards@nih.gov by November 12, 2024 10AM EST. 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