Abstract: Groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) refer to ecosystems that partly or completely depend on groundwater. Research on GDEs is essential not only for understanding the eco-hydrological characteristics and processes of GDEs, but also for protecting the ecological environment and promoting sustainable use of groundwater. This paper presented a comprehensive review on the recent progress that mainly focused on the impacting factors from natural and human activities, methods of classification and identification, simulation of eco-hydrological processes of GDEs. It also discussed the issues and shortcomings in present studies and gave perspectives for future research. It was concluded from this review that GDEs were largely impacted by climate change and use of groundwater, the classifications of GDEs should be convenient for field investigations and groundwater management, the identification of GDEs should integrate hydrogeological survey, "3S" technologies and groundwater fauna sample analysis. This review has also suggested that simulations of eco-hydrological processes for GDEs need to be focused on the interactions of surface and subsurface flows, and contributions of groundwater to vegetation, solute transport and heat exchange.