Extending from the coastline to the deepest of oceans and rich in natural resources, the submarine realm constitutes more than 70% of the surface area of our blue planet, the vast majority of which cannot be observed directly by humans. However, almost all of the ocean-related activities of humans depend on some knowledge of the seafloor, and thus seafloor exploration forms the basis for its understanding and exploitation. Although technological progress has made exploration of such environments increasingly accurate, high-resolution surveying and mapping of the seafloor remain ongoing challenges. This is especially true of the deep sea, where mapping resolution is typically less than that of the moon. Currently, 80% of the seafloor has yet to be mapped using modern swath-mapping tools.

The book is an excellent academic work in the fields of ocean mapping and seafloor exploration, covering all aspects of seafloor surveying from current measurement techniques to data processing and applications. Through careful consideration, the editors have presented a detailed book comprising 12 chapters, covering state-of-the-art techniques in high-resolution seafloor mapping and data processing, advances in data mining of seafloor surveys, and applied seafloor geomorphology based on selected examples. This work represents a complete theoretical framework of high-resolution seafloor surveying suitable both for established earth scientists and professionals and for students hoping to gain relevant skills and knowledge in this field.

The chapters provided by different contributors cover the topics of survey instrumentation and supporting processing technology, including multibeam and laser bathymetry, side-scan and subbottom profile sonar, robotic and autonomous platforms, remote sensing and satellite technologies, navigational and positional fixing, vertical tidal datums, construction of digital terrain models, seabed characterisation, and some scientific, commercial, and regulatory applications. Among them, the original and highly innovative discussions on subjects such as multibeam filtering based on a robust estimating surface, the merge–normalization method of multisource bathymetric data fusion, and the delineation of undersea features, are particularly impressive. Topics on seafloor surveying of this book are well-organized and are ideal references for teaching and studying related subjects, as well as for any reader interested in this field.

The authors take care to introduce each method with a non-technical explanation and some historical background, before going into the details of how it works. The more detailed sections are comprehensive and provide details of the theory, algorithms and workflows that are used in each case. This allows the book to be used to gain a broad overview of the methods available, to get a more detailed understanding of a particular method, or as a reference for the algorithms used.

A rather unique aspect of the book is that it describes many of the instruments, platforms and packages used in China, as well as those developed in the rest of the world (predominantly the US and Europe). This makes the coverage of the book very comprehensive. Many of the examples are based on applications in China, revealing the extent of development that has taken place over the last 30–40 years, and some notable differences when compared with western technology.

The ocean today is a less remote and more fascinating place than it ever was. However, it still represents a frontier of research and resource exploitation. Owing to the difficulties inherent in investigation of the ocean floor, study of seafloor surveying and submarine geomorphology is a relatively young discipline. This book makes a useful contribution to a field that has experienced rapid development over the last 20–30 years and continues to develop at pace. It should be of interest to those wishing to learn about the techniques currently available, as well as those seeking a handy reference for the technologies in use from survey through to application.