Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has emerged as a powerful tool in various applications over the past three decades, including military, environmental, and civil uses. HSI combines spectroscopy and imaging to generate a 3D database of spectral and spatial information, making it effective for material identification and surface characterization. This review focuses on the fundamentals of HSI and its applications in food safety and quality assessment, medical analysis, agriculture, water resource management, plant stress identification, weed and crop discrimination, and flood management. **Key Points:** - **Fundamentals of HSI:** HSI captures spectral information at each pixel of a 2D array detector, generating a hypercube with one wavelength dimension and two spatial dimensions. - **Technologies and Platforms:** HSI sensors capture near-infrared, visible, and short-wavelength infrared spectra, with spectral resolutions ranging from 0.4 to 2.5 μm. Platforms include point scanning, line scanning, and image snapshots. - **Applications:** - **Food Safety and Quality Assessment:** HSI is used for defect and contamination detection, post-harvest processing, and internal attribute analysis. - **Medical Analysis:** HSI provides real-time biomarker data and spectral tissue information, aiding in clinical diagnoses such as cancer detection and skin abnormalities. - **Agriculture:** HSI helps in crop evaluation, soil analysis, and water stress detection, improving crop yield and quality. - **Water Resource Management:** HSI accurately measures water body parameters, aiding in efficient management and monitoring. - **Plant Stress Identification:** HSI detects early signs of plant stress, reducing productivity losses. - **Flood Management:** HSI enhances flood detection and impact assessment, providing timely information for disaster management. **Pros and Cons:** - **Pros:** Non-invasive, environmentally safe, efficient, and provides detailed chemical information. - **Cons:** High cost, large data size, signal interference, and difficulty in identifying items within the same image. This review highlights the potential of HSI in various fields and suggests future research directions based on the current advancements and applications.Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has emerged as a powerful tool in various applications over the past three decades, including military, environmental, and civil uses. HSI combines spectroscopy and imaging to generate a 3D database of spectral and spatial information, making it effective for material identification and surface characterization. This review focuses on the fundamentals of HSI and its applications in food safety and quality assessment, medical analysis, agriculture, water resource management, plant stress identification, weed and crop discrimination, and flood management. **Key Points:** - **Fundamentals of HSI:** HSI captures spectral information at each pixel of a 2D array detector, generating a hypercube with one wavelength dimension and two spatial dimensions. - **Technologies and Platforms:** HSI sensors capture near-infrared, visible, and short-wavelength infrared spectra, with spectral resolutions ranging from 0.4 to 2.5 μm. Platforms include point scanning, line scanning, and image snapshots. - **Applications:** - **Food Safety and Quality Assessment:** HSI is used for defect and contamination detection, post-harvest processing, and internal attribute analysis. - **Medical Analysis:** HSI provides real-time biomarker data and spectral tissue information, aiding in clinical diagnoses such as cancer detection and skin abnormalities. - **Agriculture:** HSI helps in crop evaluation, soil analysis, and water stress detection, improving crop yield and quality. - **Water Resource Management:** HSI accurately measures water body parameters, aiding in efficient management and monitoring. - **Plant Stress Identification:** HSI detects early signs of plant stress, reducing productivity losses. - **Flood Management:** HSI enhances flood detection and impact assessment, providing timely information for disaster management. **Pros and Cons:** - **Pros:** Non-invasive, environmentally safe, efficient, and provides detailed chemical information. - **Cons:** High cost, large data size, signal interference, and difficulty in identifying items within the same image. This review highlights the potential of HSI in various fields and suggests future research directions based on the current advancements and applications.