composition and biochemical and physical characteristics of the Earth¿s surface. Today, several hyperspectral spaceborne missions are under development to be launched within the next few years. It can be expected that future global and frequent coverage of the Earth¿s surface with spaceborne imaging spectroscopy data will bring a major advance in the information depth that future Earth system models and monitoring service developments can be based on. Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 40, Issue 3, 2019 The chapters "Imaging Spectrometry of Inland and Coastal Waters: State of the Art, Achievements and Perspectives", "Imaging Spectroscopy for the Detection, Assessment and Monitoring of Natural and Anthropogenic Hazards", "Assessing Vegetation Function with Imaging Spectroscopy", "Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy for Sustainable Agriculture: Contributions and Challenges" are available as open access articles under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.