Ecological waterre quirement (EWR) is one of the global foci-research subjects inenvironment alrelated field,which has aninter-relation shipwi the cology,hydrology,environment alscience,etc.This paper reviews the research advances in EWR at home and abroad,introducing the concepts,classifications and character is tics of EWR and summarizing calculating methods for EWR:in-side river course(including rivers,estuaries and lakes)and out side river course(including vegetation,animals,wetlands,cities and covering over-exploitation of groundwater).Especially the basic ideas,advantages,disadvantages and conditions interm so fpracti-cal application EWR calculation of river ecosystem arepointed out.Meanwhile,there as on sof differences between domestic and for-eign research methods are discussed.Foregoing analyses evoke some questions about the current study of EWR in China:1)a consistent and sound understanding of the concept,connotation and extension of EWR has not been obtained so far;2)great attentions should be paid to the applicability of the foreign calculation methods in China;and 3)further progress about the development and application of EWR will be promising due to:combining domestic with foreign calculation methods and reason able improvement,strengthening the application of new technologies such as 3S,enhancing there search of EWR in humid areas,where water quality-induced water shortage such as South China Pearl River Basin.