The global climate continues to warm, resulting in the sustaining increase of the glacier-snow melt water and permafrost degradation in the alpine zone. The glacier-snow melt water increased significantly. Different hydrograph separation methods of melt-water can quantify the contribution of snow and ice melt water to the river and reflect the changes of snow and ice in the alpine area and their response to climate warming. In this paper, different hydrograph separation methods and their advantages and disadvantages are reviewed, with an emphasis on the calculation methods of isotopic/chemical hydrograph separation and the selection of tracers. The results of hydrograph separation of different watersheds are compared and analyzed,and the main factors influencing the change of melt-water runoff are discussed in detail. Aimed at the idealized hypothesis of the isotope hydrograph separation,an extended study of quantified uncertainty is proposed. Finally,the development of isotope hydrograph separation is prospected, with the improvement of high frequency sampling technique.