Hydrodynamic effect will enhance the shear effect of sediment and water interface, and the physical and chemical properties of the overlying water and sediment (dissolved oxygen, pH, redox potential, etc. ) will be changed. Thus, the release law of pollutants will be affected or even changed. The advances in the past decade are reviewed and summarized to reveal the release mechanism of nutrients, heavy metals and persistent organic matters as well as the main factors affecting the release process under hydrodynamic forces in this paper. It is proposed that some issues should be improved in the further study, including the mechanism of sediment resuspension and redistribution behavior under multiple hydrodynamic disturbances, the synergistic or antagonistic coupling mechanism between the hydrodynamic action and the release of various pollutants in sediments, microscopic mechanism of pollutant release under the combined action of hydrodynamic forces and aquatic plants, and the model construction of sediment release dynamics based on complex conditions.