UiO-66, as a kind of classic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), was foreseen as one of the most promising MOF materials for practical water purification, benefiting from its merits of rich pores, super-huge specific surface area, outstanding stability, intriguing properties and functions. Recently, to further enhance the applications of UiO-66-based materials in water environmental restoration, series effective strategies including functional modification, defect engineering, construction of UiO-66-based composites and membranes, had captured widespread interests by researchers. In this review, the recent advances in both various design strategies and corresponding structure-property relationships in wastewater treatment were summarized. The different design strategies induced particular applications, involving environmental catalysis, adsorption and fluorescent sensing detection, had been clarified with typical works. Moreover, the mechanisms and corresponding proof-of-concept techniques were also reviewed in detail. Finally, the existing challenges and future prospects of UiO-66 based functional materials including the pristine UiO-66 and its derivatives/composites for pollutants removal and sensing detection were proposed.