One of the most important problems in river engineering is to determine a stable cross section geomenry and slope for an alluvial channel. This has been the subject of considerable research for about a century and continues to be of great practical interest. Lgnoring plan geometry, an alluvi-al channel can adjust its slope, depth and width, to develop a dynamic stable condition in which it can transport a certain a-mount of water and sediment. The brief history of regime the-ory and its new development are reviewed in this paper.