U.S. Geological Survey, MS 205C, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20192

70 -- DATA PREPARATION SOFTWARE AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES POC Maggie Russell (703) 648-7366 This is not a notice for a solicitation. This is a Request for Information (RFI); neither a draft statement of work nor specifications are available. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Resources Division (WRD) develops ground-water modeling (simulation) software. This software incorporates numerical methods such as Finite Difference and Finite Element in which the region to be modeled is divided into numerous cells or elements. Vast amounts of input data defining the physical properties of the cells or elements are required by the models; therefore, data preparation software must be developed in order to make the modeling easy to use. The USGS would like to make use of commercial software in order to minimize the cost and time for developing the data preparation software for models. The USGS requests that interested software vendors submit information about their commercial software and software development strategies that could be of use for developing data preparation software for models. Some general requirements for data preparation software are: (1) The user interface is graphical; (2) Map information (points, lines, and polygons) can be converted into gridded data. The types of grids most frequently used are finite difference, triangular finite elements, and quadrilateral finite elements; (3) Map information can be manipulated graphically; (4) Map information can be maintained in grid independent form so that it can be modified and then regridded; (5) It must be possible to adjust grid spacing and orientation and then regrid the data; (6) The gridded data can be displayed and manipulated in a variety of ways; (7) Gridded data can be written into files in a variety of ways; (8) USGS scientists can quickly and easily write, modify, or reconfigure the data preparation software for use with new models as they develop models; (9) The cost for distributing run files is low (ideally run files could be distributed inside or outside the USGS at no cost); and (10) The software must run on Personal Computers (ideally, the software could run on multiple platforms). All vendors interested in providing the requested information are invited to respond. Any pricing information submitted that contains restrictions on its disclosure will be returned to the vendors. No formal solicitation or contract will result from this synopsis for industry information; any subsequent solicitation will be synopsized prior to its release. All responses, including technical and commercially available pricing information, must be received by June 6, 1997. The Government does not intend to pay for the information solicited. (0126)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0282 19970508\70-0006.SOL)