Abstract: As the anthropogenic disturbance on large river systems become common,the riverine function's degradation is of ten mentioned in the contemporary river management studies and form one of the major challenges in the fields of watershed exploitation. This paper intends to review the current status of the river system adjustment mechanism. The discussion starts with the analysis of the characteristic of the interact ion between water-sediment regime and river system adjustment,including hydro-hydraulic character and geo-ecosyste. It gives us the description that the different changes of a river system are the reflections of the certain variation of a water sediment regime. The paper then reviews the process of the recognition of the riverine functions and focuses on the techniques to estimate river systems in response to the changing inputs. The paper finally gives some suggestions to advance the research and achieve the higher levels of the water-sediment regulation of the sustainable river management.