In this paper, the application of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in hydraulic and ocean engineering is divided into four categories: wave and current simulation, fluid-solid coupling simulation, sediment transport simulation, and water-air two-phase flow simulation. The paper describes the research status and corresponding technical treatments of SPH application, especially with regard to the difficulties of non-reflection wave generation, inflow and outflow boundaries, fluid-solid interface movement, and bed scour; elaborates on the advantages and disadvantages of different SPH models; summarizes the development characteristics of SPH over the past decade; and proposes that the future work on SPH application in the hydraulics field focus on developing a high-accuracy and efficient algorithm model, mature turbulence model, and parallel computing model.