June 19, 2003 - The ceremony of Ukraine's first satellite streamgage opening in Svalyava, Zakarpattia Oblast, took place. The ceremony was attended by the U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine, Carlos Pascual, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Altarum Institute (URLMC co-founder) and ULRMC representatives. Senior representatives of the Zakarpattia Oblast, Svalyava City and Svalyava Rayon administrations also participated in the ceremony hosted by Svalyava Mayor I.I. Revtiy and attended by local citizens and students.

In May 2001, after assessing the possibilities for technological improvements in the flood monitoring network's operation in Zakarpattia Oblast, ULRMC and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with the State Water Management Committee (SWMC) of Ukraine (Zakarpattia Oblast Administration) and with financial support from USAID, proposed to install satellite telemetry-based, automatic streamgage stations on the rivers of the Tisa Basin River. These stations are being transferred to SWMC (Zakarpattia Oblast Administration) as a recipient of U.S. technical assistance. Plans call for the stations to be installed in locations where the transmission of observation data via radio communication is not reliable.

The installed first two streamgages on Latoritsa River in Svalyava and Pidpolozzya offer early warnings and reduction of disastrous floods consequences on Zakarpattia rivers through the application of modern information technologies (satellite communication, data processing and acquisition through the Internet), providing hourly, real-time acquisition data.