The word hydrographic is a combination of 2 words, which is hydro and graphic. The word hydro means water and the word hydro gives the meaning of a drawing. The combination of the word hydrographic, used in its early stages described graphic or drawing that shows the depth of water of a certain location either a river, lake, straits including the sea. The graphics or drawing is known as charts. Preparing a chart is a long drawn process which requires collecting data which is required to produce a chart. This work of collecting data is known as hydrographic measurement.

The scope of hydrographic measurement is very wide. According to the hydrographic dictionary, the publication of International Hydrographic Organization (IHO, 1994); hydrographic measurement is a measure with the purpose to record data that involves the sea bed. It could be either data from classes of data which includes depth, shape and morphology of the sea bed, direction and wave current, tide information and location of objects on the sea bed that is required for measurement or navigation.