Significant changes in the regional energy process, water recycling and the biological process have taken place due to the climate change and human activities, and the regional agriculture has been affected by these changes. It is therefore a key issue for the regional agricultural water resource management to accurately monitor and evaluate the change of crop evapotranspiration under a changing environment. The development of the evapotranspiration theory was first reviewed, and then, the driven mechanisms and the research progress of crop evapotranspiration were illustrated. The suitability of the current monitoring method and evaluation model of the evapotranspiration in the crop evapotranspiration research under climate change were analyzed. After that, the current studies of the agricultural water resources management of “ET-based” were reviewed, and finally, the research tendency of the crop evapotranspiration on the theory, methods and application management in the future were prospected.