Abstract: Water quality criteria are essential for the development of standards for water quality and management by government environmental protection agencies.Among them,aquatic life criteria are used to protect the biodiversity and the proper ecosystem function of aquatic life,and ultimately provide a basis for establishing environmental policy and making strategic plan by governments.So far,assessment factor method,species sensitivity distribution curve method and toxicity percentile rank method are popularly used to establish aquatic life criteria.This comprehensive review was on derivation,scope of application,advantages and disadvantages of the three methods.The research status and development tendency of aquatic life water quality criteria for pesticides in fresh water were also discussed.