Subsea image interpretation. A problem in remote sensing

This paper illustrates statistical techniques which can be applied to acoustic imagery to compensate for the lack of multispectral information. Fractal segmentation appears to be a very powerful technique for discriminating local variations in the sea-floor, which is important in enabling boundaries between different regions to be delineated. The measurement of spectral attenuation in the sub-bottom provides a possible tool for obtaining information on geotechnical properties of the sediments. This type of information could reduce the requirement for seabed coring surveys which are very expensive and time consuming.