Abstract: Dike-break floods usually result in catastrophic property damages and loss of lives, which can be reduced significantly through emergency closure of the dike breaches. In order to increase the efficiency of breach closure,both innovations on closure technology and deep understanding of the flow characteristics of dike breaches are required. This paper reviewes recent experimental results on the evolution process and flow characteristics of dike breaches. The application conditions and calculation methods of various materials and the key auxiliary components and construction equipment of closure methods that have been adopted in engineering practices were summarized. New breach-closure measures that have been proposed recently were introduced. The existing progress indicates that further experiment research on the flow characteristics of dike breaches were needed. Meanwhile,the development of portable techniques for measuring breach parameters and automatic equipment for quickly breach closure should be enhanced.