Tenders

Evaluation and scoring of ACRES General Commonage (outside of the ACRES Co-operation Project areas) as part of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan

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Tender

https://irl.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/rwlproposal_s.asp?PID=240873

The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (‘ACRES’) is administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), as part of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP).


There are two approaches within ACRES namely:
• ACRES General, available nationally (outside of the high priority geographical area as defined for the ACRES Co-operation approach),
and
• ACRES Co-operation, available to farmers in defined high priority geographical areas (ACRES Co-operation ‘CP’ areas).

Commonage is a mandatory action in ACRES which means that all commonage lands declared by the ACRES applicant in their BPS/BISS in the specified year, whether owned, leased or rented had to must be included in ACRES.

The purpose of this Request for Tender is to procure the services of a team of qualified personnel for the qualitative evaluation and results-based scoring of commonage parcels in ACRES that fall outside of the defined ACRES Co-operation geographical areas under ACRES.

The commonage area for evaluation and assessment has been divided into four separate areas or ‘regions’ for tender, based on geographical location. Each region will operate as a standalone lot. A tender may be submitted by an individual, an individual entity or by a consortium comprising of a number of entities. A tenderer may tender for one or more lots.

The purpose of this Request for Tender (RFT) is to procure the services of a team of qualified personnel for the qualitative evaluation and results-based scoring of commonage parcels that fall outside of the defined ACRES Co-operation geographical areas under ACRES.

Results-based scoring of all commonages is a commitment in the CSP and required as part of the validation of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)/ Appropriate Assessment (AA) or performance output of the CSP.

RFT-239522-Non-cp-commonage-24042023-1Download

Tender: provision of a compliance tracking software solution for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

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The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has a requirement for a compliance tracking software solution to replace an existing manual process. The Department is now seeking information from providers of compliance tracking software that have a track record in providing secure standards based compliant compliance tracking software solutions.

The current manual process involves up to 80 different external organisations, operating in different sectors of the economy, submitting a Self-Assessment spreadsheet on a yearly basis

These spreadsheets are used to track organisations’ performance against key outcomes and progress of Corrective Action Plans.

These spreadsheets span multiple excel tabs, within each tab there are multiple sections and multiple columns. Organisations assess themselves against these out-comes which are then used by DECC to track performance.

This current manual process has a number of drawbacks such as difficulty to:

  • compare performance across years
  • identifying common gaps or issues
  • identifying areas of good or poor performance
  • produce reliable and detailed reports
  • inability to query information easily

The move to replace this manual process is part of a move to increase electronic management of the documents and automation of steps within the compliance process and to provide a secure and user-friendly application for the end users. The change is also aiming to create reliable and timely statistics, detailed reports, audit tracking capabilities and the ability to easily identify gaps to facilitate management of the compliance process as well as reporting to senior management and external constituents on compliance progression.

DECC is seeking information from providers of compliance tracking software that have a track record in providing secure standards based compliant compliance tracking software solutions.

The purpose of this Request for Information is to assist DECC in clarifying its requirements and evaluating potential options for such software solutions.

Compliance-Tracking-Software-Solution-Request-for-InformationDownload

Provision of National Ecosystems Monitoring Support 2022 to 2026 – Monitoring Air Pollution Impacts across Sensitive Ecosystems

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https://irl.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/rwlproposal_s.asp?PID=223421

The revised National Emissions Ceiling (NEC) Directive (2016/2284) requires that Member States ensure the monitoring of negative impacts of air pollution upon ecosystems based on a network of sites that is representative of their freshwater, natural and semi-natural habitats and forest ecosystem types, taking a cost-effective and risk-based approach.

The EPA is now advancing with implementation of the NEMN in Ireland, based on guidance and recommendations included in the NEMN Design Report, plus the slight amendments to the sites as submitted to the EEA/Eionet under the Article 9 / Article 10(4) submission.

The EPA Chemicals and Ecosystems Monitoring Team requires specialised technical support and input, to support implementation activities for the period 2022-2024.

Summary

The revised National Emissions Ceiling (NEC) Directive (2016/2284) requires that Member States ensure the monitoring of negative impacts of air pollution upon ecosystems based on a network of sites that is representative of their freshwater, natural and semi-natural habitats and forest ecosystem types, taking a cost-effective and risk-based approach.

In 2020 the EPA awarded a framework agreement for technical support and input from a suitably qualified third party to support the review, establishment and operation of the National Ecosystems Monitoring Network (NEMN) over the period from 2020 to 2022. Under this contract, a report entitled ‘National Ecosystem Monitoring Network (NEMN)-Design: Monitoring Air Pollution Impacts across Sensitive Ecosystems[1] (“NEMN Design Report”)’ was developed which proposes methods for air quality monitoring, ecosystem parameters for assessment, as well as sites for inclusion in the NEMN to provide representative coverage across sensitive habitat types and major pollution gradients. This report was the basis of the submission under Article 9 of the NEC Directive that was submitted to the EEA/Eionet during 2022 in accordance with Article 10 (4) of the Directive.

The EPA is now advancing with implementation of the NEMN in Ireland, based on guidance and recommendations included in the NEMN Design Report, plus the slight amendments to the sites as submitted to the EEA/Eionet under the Article 9 / Article 10(4) submission.  The EPA Chemicals and Ecosystems Monitoring Team requires specialised technical support and input, to support implementation activities for the period 2022-2024. 

[1] https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/ie/eu/nec_revised/sites/envyr60lw/

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NECD_Article_10_4_Design_Report_2020Download

EPA Tender: River Flow Estimation Services

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Detailed Specification of Requirements

The tenderer is required to provide a service meeting the following technical and service level specifications;

•          Provide accurate river flow statistics estimates for Ireland, using a proprietary, proven modelling package and using the most appropriate catchment descriptors. The model should be capable of producing natural and artificially influenced annual and monthly flow statistics, flow duration curves and modelled time series (hydrographs) for all river types and catchment scales. The appropriateness of proposed catchment descriptors should be supported by published evidence where necessary. The existing EPA HydroTool methodology may be used for the production of flow duration curve estimates and statistics. Modelled hydrograph estimates for ungauged cachments should be based on a regionalised daily rainfall-runoff type model.

•          The service should be provided in a cloud-based interface with ESRI ArcGIS file types. The service should have a dedicated spatial database for storage of catchment descriptor information, point influence data (impoundments, abstractions and discharges), river flow gauging data and spot gauging data. 

•          The service must provide estimates of both natural flows and of flows impacted by impoundments, abstractions (surface and groundwater), and discharges (flow duration curve).

•          The service must provide estimates that incorporate observed flow data to refine modelled estimates using defendable estimation techniques.

•          Provide generated catchment watershed boundaries for selected river stretches or lake outflow points on an established river line network derived from a DTM model or attributed river catchment area grid. A hydrologically corrected DTM (20m resolution) will be supplied by the EPA, however, this DTM may require editing in conjunction with existing EPA rivers, lakes and catchment boundary GIS data sets to facilitate incorporation into the model. Sufficient allowance for such potential editing requirements should also be included for in the tender if required.

•          Provide estimates of both natural and influenced annual flow duration curves and modelled daily hydrographs for un-gauged catchments.

•          Provide estimates of both natural and influenced monthly and seasonal flow duration curves for un-gauged catchments.

•          Provide estimates of both natural and influenced defined flow statistics, including:

  • mean monthly flows
  • monthly flow duration statistics
  • annual flow duration statistics
  • defined seasonal flow duration statistics

•          Provide estimates of both monthly mean flows and mean monthly run-off volumes.

•          Provide adjusted derived flow statistics to account for presence of lakes within catchments

•          Provide weighted flow estimates using long term observed flow records from permanent river flow gauging stations.

•          Provide flow duration curves and daily modelled hydrographs for un-gauged catchments using spot flow gauging data and attributed flow duration from gauged catchments of similar character.

•          Provide derived catchment statistics that will assist in understanding surface water/groundwater connectivity, for example BFIHOST, BFI.

•          The service must provide the ability to view, manage and update all artificial influence data, gauged flow data and spot flow gauging data through a graphical user interface.

•          Provide storable and printable reports of summary catchment descriptor information and summary catchment influence data for each flow estimate generated in an appropriate format.  These formats should be of generic type and compatible to upload to standard software packages such as Microsoft Excel, Access and Word (e.g. CSV, dbf, text, etc.).

•          Produce summary reports of calculated errors for any given flow estimate performed.

•          Provide the facility of incorporating actual field flow measurements (spot gauging data) into the model to assist in improving modelled estimates and to be able to update the model on new abstraction and discharge data to ensure artificially influenced statistics are current and accurate.

•          Provide estimates of abstraction pressures based on flow duration curve percentages and waterbody sensitivity classes provided by the EPA in spreadsheet and/or GIS formats.

•          Provide a vector GIS layer based on the EPA Rivers layer which is appended with the naturalised flow statistics for the downstream point of each node to node river reach in the shapefile. This file will be made publicly available by the EPA on their geoportal for view and download. Ideally a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 open licence would apply.

•          Provide and maintain a hosted service available internally to the staff in the Hydrometric and Groundwater Section of the EPA capable of providing naturalised flow duration curve statistics, modelled hydrographs, as well as scenario modelling, eflow analysis  and water resources management functionality. It is envisaged that up to 5 individual user licences will be required for this service.

•          Hosted Service

1-RFT-Request-for-Tender-Open-River-Flow-Estimation-2022Download
2-TRD-Tender-Response-Document-River-flow-estimation-2022Download

Bord na Mona Water Quality Testing Programme

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Sampling of 185 silt pond locations (monthly)

80 samples taken up and downstream from 40 outfalls (quarterly)

6 samples per month from Blackwater Works, Edenderry Power Plant and Mountdillon Works

Weekly grab samples from bog operations

Clonbullogue Ash Repository

Derrinlough Briquette Factory

Kilberry Compost Facility

Water-Testing-Environmental-Tender-ITT-Aug-22Download
Appendix-1-Pricing-Schedule-August-2022Download

Tender: Technical/scientific support to NPWS in the development of GIS based data collation, analysis & management tools for relevant peatland data (Bord na Mona, EDRRS Programme)

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Bord na Móna Peatlands Enhanced Decommissioning, Rehabilitation and Restoration Scheme (EDRRS) and the role of NPWS as scheme regulator

The Peatlands EDRRS was approved in 2020.  The Scheme is administered by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), regulated by the NPWS of the DHLGH and operated by Bord na Móna.  It involves many other diverse stakeholders including the EPA, relevant NGOs, local authorities, representative organisations and importantly, the local communities.

The objectives of the scheme are as follows:

  1. To rehabilitate the Peatlands so that the improvements optimise climate, environmental, ecological and hydrological impacts; and 
  2. To rehabilitate the Peatlands in accordance with peatland rehabilitation best practice as agreed between the main stakeholders.

Bord na Móna is to implement an enhanced rehabilitation scheme on over 33,000 hectares of Bord na Móna lands previously harvested for peat that was used for fuel for the purposes of electricity generation.

The NPWS regulatory role consists of, inter alia, the following functions:

  1. Conducting an annual ex-ante assessment of proposed rehabilitation works from an ecological and financial perspective on the basis of an agreed methodology and of individual site rehabilitation plans submitted by Bord na Móna.
  • Monitoring progress being made during each year on the implementation of each site rehabilitation plan from an ecological and financial perspective to include site visits.
  • Conducting an annual ex-post review of rehabilitation works carried out by Bord na Móna on each site to ensure they have been carried out to the requisite, pre-approved ecological, eco-hydrological and environmental standards and in line with the pre-approved cost and financial standards.
  • Liaising with the DECC in relation to the implementation of the scheme.
  • Engaging any external contractors to assist with the implementation of the functions, as required, in accordance with public procurement legislation and guidelines.

This request for tender is for the provision of full-time scientific/technical support to NPWS. The scientific/technical support will be provided by one individual rather than a team. Scientific/technical support will be required in relation to the tasks described below.

The successful tenderer will primarily be responsible for assisting in setting up the data structures to collate and manage the ex-ante assessment, monitoring and ex-post assessment of the rehabilitation works spatial data produced by the EDRRS for NPWS and any other relevant peatland data.

In addition, the successful tenderer will be responsible for managing the data arising from all such work, as well as data analysis, and provide advice in relation to compliance with the following: NPWS Ecological Data Management Unit data standards and procedures, legislation and policies including the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019, INSPIRE Directive, the Public Sector Data Strategy, the Open Data Initiative and Open Data Directive, Habitats and Birds Directives and related Irish regulations, the Water Framework Directive and other EU Environmental Directives and relevant Irish regulations, the Wildlife Acts, and the Ramsar Convention.

Under the overall direction of the Senior Inspector/Principal Officer of the NPWS of the DHLGH, the appointee will be assigned to the Ecological Data Management Section of the Science and Biodiversity Unit. The work programme will be overseen by a Grade II Ecologist in the Science and Biodiversity Unit with technical supervision from the Ecological Data Management Unit.

Tasks

  • Develop a GIS based data collation and management tool for the storing and management of all site specific rehabilitation plans spatial data including imagery and metadata compliant with international standards, suitable for integration with NPWS spatial data management systems.
  • Assist with the development of GIS web applications, and prepare and publish data layers, maps, as necessary.
  • Collate and maintain relevant raised bogs datasets including rehabilitation plans, ecological, hydrological, spatial data, imagery and related metadata.
  • In collaboration with the Ecological Data Management and GIS Units of NPWS, refine data structures for the capture of monitoring and assessment data.
  • In collaboration with the Ecological Data Management and GIS Units of NPWS, assist with the interpretation of remote imagery and the development of remote sensing methods to map changes in vegetation when required.
  • Derive statistics for relevant Biodiversity and Climate-related reporting obligations.
  • Develop and maintain effective linkages with organisations and individuals with relevant data holdings.
  • Maintain active engagement with the Ecological Data Management and GIS Units of NPWS to ensure compatibility with current and developing data standards and guidelines across all actions.
  • Attending weekly meetings with Bord na Mona as part of the EDRRS team.
  • Undertake other duties that may be assigned from time to time.

RFT_EDRRS_GIS_v07Download