Abstract: Due to serious pollution of rural water environments in China, it is very crucial that our knowledge on water environmental pollution control theory and technique are augmented. In this paper, the impact of rural landscape pattern on water quality and landscape-optimizing methods are reviewed. At present, much studies focus on the static effect of single landscape on water environment on small- to medium-scale rather than a dynamic landscape effect at multi-componential large-scale. And most domestic researches stagnate on parameter adaptation for existing models and simple re-coupling. Prediction scenarios of water environment effects of different landscape patterns also require augmentation. Studies should be directed in the following areas: interaction mechanism between rural landscape patterns and ecological processes, models of water environment effects based on watershed landscapes and uncertainty analyses, optimization methods of landscape patterns and their research applications for decisionmaking and management in China.