In the context of global climate change and urbanization, urban water issues occur frequently all over the world, such as water shortages, floods, pollution and so on. They bring enormous challenges to sustainability and livability of cities. The concept of urban water resilience sheds light on new solutions to alleviate urban water problems. The origin, evolvement and connotation of the resilience concept in the field of ecology and sociology were discussed in this paper. Simultaneously, the concepts of resilience, vulnerability and adaptation were compared. The concept and application of resilience in urban water system were illustrated on this basis. In addition, the evaluation methods of water resilience and resilient strategies were systematically reviewed, and four trends of resilient water system research were prospected in this review.