Industrial effluent with high concentration, hightoxic, low biodegradability can be degraded effectively by advanced oxidation processes which is one of the focus in water treatment field today. This paper summarizes the characteristics of advanced oxidation process and the application of AOPs such as chemical oxidation, photochemical oxidation, photocatalytic oxidation, hydrothermal oxidation, ultrasonic oxidation and high voltage pulsed discharge plasma in water treatment.