Abstract:To cope with the new challenges of environmental flow research under hydrology, climate and ecosystem changes, research results from both China and abroad have been summarized. Five aspects of shortcomings in the current environmental flow research are pointed out, which also belong to frontier problems and challenges, including(1)Global environmental change and instability; (2)Dynamic simulation of eco-hydrological process in which the transition of hydrological regime from static evaluation to dynamic characteristic evaluation is the key; (3)Characteristics of eco-hydrological relationship in which the coupling research of ecosystem state, process variables and species characteristics, and the research of ecological characteristics, spatial and temporal scales of environmental flows are the key points; (4)Key indicators in environmental flow evaluation; (5)Ecology extension of environmental flow forecasting. To solve these problems, research directions of environmental flows in the background of the Anthropocene are proposed. Dynamic adaptive management of ecological objectives and basic research of ecology from local to reginal areas should be strengthened. Mechanisms of eco-hydrological response based on process should be completed and phased implementation of non-hydrological indicator coupling should be intensified. Evaluation and application of environmental flows under adaptive management should be strengthened to guarantee ecological integrity.