Abstract: Studies on the material throughput in the socioeconomic system from the viewpoint of metabolism is not only important for understanding the relationship between human activities and natural environment, but also helpful for utilizing resources in a reasonable and sustainable manner. Based on the review of the research progress in material metabolism worldwide, which included the methodology, application on different scales, and effects on resource and environment, the state of the art of existing literature and the challenges remained for future studies were summarized systema-tically. The material metabolism research should shift its focus on the single theory and method to the integration of multi-theories and methods so as to address the complex metabolism problems. With the increasingly important role that cities play in global ecological environment, more emphasis should be laid on the combination of traditional metabolism research with spatial analysis, and the incorporation of indicators like human wellbeing into the research scope in city-scale research. By doing so, more actionable and sustainable policies could be designed to conserve resources, mitigate the environmental load, and enhance the coordination among the development in economy, environment and society.

Key words: resource, sustainable development, metabolism