Request for Proposals (RFP): Integration of Spatial Data on the Land Portal

The Land Portal is an independent nonprofit foundation based in The Netherlands. The Land Portal pioneered the open data revolution in the land sector and is committed to building an information ecosystem for land governance that ultimately supports better informed decision and policy making at local, national and international levels. Together with our partners and users, we work tirelessly in producing, curating and disseminating land-related data and information according to international open data standards, tackling the fragmentation and the constraints that still affect many aspects of the land information landscape. The Land Portal has rapidly carved out a unique space in the global land community and it is increasingly seen as the leading online platform for retrieving, sharing and discussing data and information on land issues.

 

In line with its mission and recognising the need to provide information at different levels of geographical disaggregation, the Land Portal releases the present RFP for the design, development and integration with the existing web infrastructure of a new spatial data and information component.

 

With up to 65 thousand pageviews per month, Land Portal’s main asset is a vibrant and diverse community of users who not only access different content hosted on the Land Portal, but also contribute directly to several sections of the platform. Our users are spread across most of the world’s countries, but mainly based in the Global South. Thus, multilingualism and the ability to operate in low bandwidth environments are vital requirements. Furthermore, our intended users are not necessarily mapping or IT specialists, and thus ease of use and intuitiveness are crucial aspects as well.

 

Another element that needs to be considered in developing and integrating the requested mapping and spatial component is the versatility of the Land Portal platform in terms of content types. Indeed, together with more than 600 statistical indicators measured at the country level, the Land Portal currently hosts nearly 50 thousand bibliographic resources, and several thousand news items, infographics, blog posts, event pages, organisational profiles, as well as country and thematic portfolios. Each of these content types is published with a rich set of metadata that is typically made available both in human and machine-readable formats.

 

The Land Portal platform is currently Drupal-based. However, our linked open data architecture is more complex and relies also on Virtuoso as a storage system, as well as on SPARQL query language. All different content types are typically tagged using LandVoc and most of the information about data, visualisation and platform development is accessible on Github. Despite a natural preference for open source software and solutions, the Land Portal do not exclude the possibility of adopting a mixture of commercially supported components alongside the existing open source core functionality.

 

As the Land Portal approaches the next phase of growth, we recognise that land related issues cannot be analysed in a spatial vacuum and we are committed to adding a spatial component to our platform that will meet the growing demand from our users for services, data and information that can adapt to different level of geographical disaggregation. The Land Portal is actively engaged in securing the support needed to the actual implementation of suitable proposals from prospective offerors, and offers will be accepted subject to the availability of the required technical and financial coverage.

                                                                       

As such, Land Portal is soliciting proposals from contractors that would be able to provide cost-effective design, development, implementation and integration with existing platform functionalities of a new spatial component for the Land Portal, that allows for the management, visualisation and mapping of different types of spatially explicit data, information and content types, while ensuring long-term sustainability and scalability of the proposed solution.

                                                                       

The Land Portal seeks a solution that meets or exceeds the current functionality of our platform. While focused on replacing and improving spatial aspects of the platform, the Land Portal would be amenable to proposals expanding beyond the simple integration of spatially explicit data on the platform to include adjustments to the data model, changes to the permission system, as well as improvements and modifications to the current linked open data architecture. We recognize that segregating spatial functionalities from the larger platform provides some opportunity for discussion regarding which aspects might be replaced, and welcome dialogue from prospective collaborators.

                                   

 
Timeline:           

• DEADLINE EXTENDED: Friday, July 13th to Friday, August 17th – Expressions of interests & Proposal Submission
• 6-8 months – Preferred implementation time  

                                                                       
Proposal Requirements:

 

• Description of proposed solution
• Cost break-down
• Time plan
• Technical specifications

                       
Technical Requirements:

• Solution must at least maintain or improve existing functionality of the current platform
• Solution must allow for the integration, display and visualisation of different spatial data formats, at different level of disaggregation
• Solution must comply with international standards for spatial data and metadata, such as OGC standards and ISO 19115:2003 (Geographic information - Metadata).
• Solution includes an interface for the customisation and management of data, metadata and visualisation -- preferably Drupal-based.
• Solution must be flexible and adaptable to different content types currently hosted on the land portal
• Solution must allow for the generation of linked open data
• Solution must at least meet or improve current data and metadata standards adopted in the current data model
• Solution must be responsive and works on mobile devices.
• Solution must work on a multilingual environment

                                   
 Factors for consideration:                                       

• Support during design, development, implementation of the solution         
• Ongoing support post-implementation   
• Security of platform and server uptime
• Data ownership and licensing; crucial that partners retain all rights to data collected and managed by them and can freely remove their data for use in other systems
• Security of platform and server uptime                                                   
• Solution must provide an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand interface for end users (non necessarily IT / GIS experts)
• Solution can be integrated with third parties softwares, apps and component -- including commercial ones (such as ESRI Story Maps)
• Solution should preferably be Open Source
• Solution is sustainable in the long run
• Cost-effectiveness
• Level of Integration with existing data and website architecture
• Characterization of different actions / possibilities / permissions for different user groups  

                                                                       
Additional Information:

• In the event of any questions or need for clarification, please contact hello@landportal.info   
• DEADLINE EXTENDED: Please submit proposals by 17:00 EST, Friday August 17th 2018, to  hello@landportal.info