Contemporary status of topographic mapping in Ukraine

The fundamentals and contemporary status of topographic mapping of Ukraine’s territory has been studied. Prior to declaration of Ukraine’s independence, its territory was covered with 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000 scale topographic maps made by sub-divisions of the Chief Department of Geodesy and Cartography affiliated with the Council of Ministers of the USSR (GUGK USSR) and sub-divisions of the Military Topographic Service (MTS) of the USSR Armed Forces. Topographic mapping related cooperation between these institutions has been described. Topographic study of Ukraine’s territory as at 1991 has been subject to close analysis, with due consideration of the coordinate systems used for topographic maps.

During the first years after Ukraine’s independence declaration topographic maps in Ukraine were made according to the previously effective Soviet instructions in the 1942 coordinate systems and 1977 Baltic height system. Since mid 1990s, Ukraine enjoyed transition from analog technology of making topographic maps to digital one. The contemporary legal and statutory support of topographic mapping in Ukraine has been studied; the implementation since 1 January 2007 of the UCS-2000 national geodetic reference coordinate system and the height system measurement works have been analyzed. Focus has been made on obsolescence of information of contemporary topographic maps and on extensive deprivation of secrecy for topographic maps in 2000s.

Critical for the development of topographic mapping in Ukraine is now the Law of Ukraine “On National Geospatial Data Infrastructure” adopted in 2020. The Topographic Service of the Armed Forces (TS AF) of Ukraine carried out big scopes of works to update the topographic maps related to Russia’s military operations against Ukraine.