Long-term flow discharge and sediment load data from four representative hydrological stations at Cuntan,Yichang,Hankou and Datong along the Yangtze River were collected. Trends and abrupt changes were detected by Mann-Kendall test,sliding t-test and sequential cluster test. The method of climate elasticity and the slope changing ratio of cumulative quantity were applied to quantify the impacts of climate change and human activities on flow discharge and sediment load. Results indicated that annual variations of flow discharge were relatively stable. However,inter-annual sediment load exhibited greater variations compared with flow discharge. Annual sediment load showed a significant decreasing trends at all stations. Significant abrupt changes were detected in the time series of flow discharge and sediment load for most hydrological stations,and most of these changes occurred around 1968 and in the early 2000s. In 1969 - 2002 (variation period Ⅰ), the relative contribution ratios of human activities to variations in flow discharge and sediment load were from 31.98% to 70.04% and from 75.40% to 95.33%,respectively. In 2003 - 2015 (variation period Ⅱ),the relative contribution ratios of human activities were from 59.75% to 80.04% and from 91.94% to 99.17%, respectively.