Having acquired independent statehood in 1991 and in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS-82, Ukraine received management of a sea area of 140,000km2. This includes sea inland waters and territorial waters totally 38,000km2 and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of more than 100,000km2.The region also includes about 2,500km of the Azov and Black Sea coast, an important component of the international system of transport corridors 'North-South' and 'West-East'.
The region gains special importance in the light of increasing volumes of oil-product supply by tanker fleets passing through the region to west Europe. Six countries of the Azov and Black Sea basin are making joint efforts to create an efficient navigation safety system in the region with the purpose of preventing the dangerous consequences of shipping accidents in these vulnerable, closed sea basins.
Ukraine has placed a substantial proportion of these responsibilities on the national hydrographic office - the State Hydrographic Institution of Ukraine, which comprises a head office in Kiev and branches in the cities of Kerch, Mykolayiv, Odessa and Sevastopol. The State Hydrographic Institution forms a structural part of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine and represents it in the International Hydrographic Organization and in other international organisations responsible for navigation, hydrography and nautical cartography. It also co-operates with the hydrographic offices of other states.
Following on International Maritime Organization (IMO) recommendations (Resolution A.705 (17)), the State Hydrographic Institution of Ukraine was designated the national co-ordinator for navigational warnings in Ukraine within the context of the World Wide Navigational Warning Service (WWNWS).
The main objectives of the fledgling hydrography organisation in Ukraine are several. It provides aids to navigation, maintains this equipment in accordance with operating modes, produces and disseminates nautical charts and Notices to Mariners and supplies ships with information on changes in fairway marking. It also carries responsibility for hydrographic surveying of seas and oceans.
Applying the substantial capabilities of computer technologies and high-precision satellite systems to perfection of aids to navigation, the State Hydrographic Institution of Ukraine is creating a network of Differential Reference Stations of differential subsystem (GNSS GLONASS/GPS) on the Black and Azov Seas coast of Ukraine.
With the purpose of providing ships and coastwise navigational systems with updated and reliable cartographic information it has been resolved to set up production of electronic navigational charts (ENCs) in compliance with S-57 IHO Standard and IMO Standards.
The introduction of dKart Office cartographic soft-ware will allow an increase in the Ukrainian charts portfolio up to 165 by the year 2006 and will contribute to timely implementation of the State Program on Improvement of Navigation Safety System.