Both climate change and human activities have great effects on riverine dissolved organic matter (DOM) . How to estimate and distinguish the influences arose from these two driving factors has been the focus of attention in hydrologic science and environmental science. In view of climate change (rainfall, runoff, temperature) and human activities (land use,urbanization,hydropower construction),three aspects of the research have been concluded as following. The origin and characteristics ofriverine DOM has been introduced. The research progress on the effects of climate change,human activity and the combination of the two on riverine DOM have been reviewed respectively. The existing research methods on the effects of climate change and human activities on riverine DOM have been summarized. The current existing research methods of climate change and human activities on the riverine DOM has been generalized,and the problems and deficiencies in the methods have been listed as well. Finally,based on current research contents,the problem of overlap between climate scenarios and human activity scenarios and also the lack of research on the mechanism of river DOM transformation and the coupling model with biogenic factors are summarized and discussed.