I am analysing dem representing sea floor attempting to identify features with certain characteristics. What are the best methods to identify features with the same characteristics using GIS?
There a field of geomorphology called geomorphometrics. Geomorphometrics has several algorithms and filters that can detect topographic features like hills, valleys, etc. Some of those algorithms/programs can be found in a GIS in the section of "topographic features extraction", in a "image processing programs" with terrain processing capabilities at the same item, etc. Some of those programs are ArGIS, ERDAS, SAGA ( free .-) ), QGIS (also free) etc.