Global climate change is mainly manifested by the temperature increase due to the impact of human activities. In global environmental scale,it is the main cause of water resources crises,water pollution and ecological degradation issues that threaten river health and it has become a critical issue that must be solved for many countries around the world. By focusing on the background of changing environments,this paper discusses the progress and achievements in the studies on the evaluation of rivers' health both domestic and abroad for the past few years.The reviewing aspects include the definition and the contents of river health,methods and applications of health evaluation. Under a certain social public value system at a specific time,river health can be definedas the ability to sustainably provide the neighboring populations with high environmental standards and the achievement of maximum added value from its exploitation with the prerequisite of maintaining the river's own fundamental ecological requirements. Based on previous studies,the major problems of river health evaluation under changing conditions were highlighted. For example,the definition and connotation of river health are still under debate and the driving mechanism of river health variation remains unclear. Also,further improvement is required for the theory and methodology of river health evaluation and finally the practice of river health evaluation is delayed and the evaluation results cannot be applied in river management effectively. It is recommended to follow the trend of development for river health evaluation in changing environments,which mainly focuses on the studies of river health evaluation and regulation at watershed scales combined with multiple temporal scales. It is also proposed to conduct research on the evaluation indicator system and the evaluation standard of river health according to local conditions.Research on river health evaluation using technologies such as 3S,construction of a long-term and comprehensive river health monitoring network,defining the "reference points" for river health in a scientific manner and integrated research on river health evaluation and water resources regulation should be carried out.