The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) has issued a Request for Quotations/Call for Participation (RFQ/CFP) to solicit proposals in response to requirements for the OGC Climatology-Hydrology Information Sharing Pilot (CHISP), Phase 1 (CHISP-1).

The RFQ/CFP is available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/87.

Responses are due by 31 August, 2012.

A bidders’ teleconference will be held on 15 August 2012. More information will be available at the URL above.

The Point of Contact is Lew Leinenweber (lleinenweber at opengeospatial dot org).

The CHISP-1 sponsors are:

-- GeoConnections - Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada

-- US Geological Survey (USGS)

-- US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Around the world, there is a critical need for improved sharing, accessing, and integration of hydrologic and climatic data.  To meet that need, CHISP-1 will engage leaders in the hydro-climatic community to collaboratively build a duplicable system that uses existing resources – including data portals, standards, technologies, activities, and expertise. These resources are available to stakeholders in all countries. 

CHISP-1 will create a virtual observatory system for water resources observations and forecasts in parts of the U.S. and Canada, building on current networks and capabilities to support:

1.         Hydrologic modeling of Mississippi River and Souris River for historical, current and future streamflow and inundation conditions. 

2.         Modeling and assessment of nutrient flux into the Great Lakes, which requires accessing and integrating water quality data from multiple agencies

Advantages of creating this system in an OGC Pilot Project include: 

     •  Management by a neutral organization

     •  Use of a mature and trusted vendor-neutral process led by experienced administrative and technical project managers

     •  Design and development best practices (iterative, agile approach to building a SOA-based system)

     •  Inclusive process, with open, international call for participation from potential sponsors, and recruiting of industry's best and brightest to staff the development team. 

CHISP-1 will exercise OGC encoding and service standards, including the OGC WaterML 2.0 Encoding Standard, the OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS) standard and others.

CHISP-1 offers many benefits. In addition to leveraging the large body of existing related activities, those activities, and others like them around the world, will be enhanced by and benefit from the pilot outcomes. By pooling resources to accomplish a shared objective, the sponsors and participants in CHISP-1 reduce their development risks and leverage their investment. In addition to identifying and clarifying what is possible, the pilot will identify the key technical and non-technical barriers to continued progress in sharing and integrating hydrologic and climatic information. Because it is an international project with broad industry participation, it will promote understanding and strengthen ties within the existing hydro-climatic community.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 460 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.