Bubble plume is a complex gas-liquid two-phase flow, which is widely used in industrial fields such as wastewater treatment, petroleum processing, environmental protection. The complex flow characteristics of bubble plume are very important for gas-liquid mass, momentum transfer and its industrial application. In this work, the flow characteristics of bubble plume in theoretical and experimental research are analyzed and summarized. The effects of different operating and structural parameters on the hydraulic characteristics such as gas holdup, bubble size distribution, plume width and oscillation are discussed. The simulation methods of observing and capturing the flow characteristics of bubble plume are summarized. In addition, due to the wide application of bubble plume, it is also very important to measure the bubble velocity distribution quickly and accurately. With the rapid development of digital image recognition technology, the combination of high-speed camera and digital image recognition technology provides an effective, intuitive and accurate method for bubble plume velocity. The prediction models and empirical formulas of hydraulic parameters such as gas holdup and bubble diameter are summarized, and the different applicable conditions of the models and formulas are listed. In the practical application of bubble plume, the structural morphology and flow characteristics of bubble plume change due to the complexity of environmental fluid (such as transverse flow in environmental fluid and stratification due to density and temperature difference of environmental fluid). Therefore, the research progress of gas-liquid two-phase flow characteristics of bubble plume in complex environment fluid is presented. The variation of bubble plume flow pattern and the effect of plume destratification in stratified fluid are summarized. The migration behavior and motion of plume in transverse flow environment are analyzed. Finally, the limitations of research methods and theoretical methods of gas-liquid two-phase flow characteristics of bubble plume are discussed. The multi-scale research direction of bubble plume motion law is proposed in further.