Urban wastewater treatment plants are oriented to the entire process control, while automatic control systems encounter many problems in parameter measurement and decision making because the wastewater treatment process is nonlinear, multivariable and time-varying. Thus most of control systems in practice are merely aimed at single parameter control or single rector control by now. Automatic control strategies are the brain of control systems, which could fulfill the potential of the hardware and software in the system and ensure the robustness of the system. Thus the mathematical models applied in the automatic control strategies of the urban wastewater treatment are introduced, and the characteristics of Activated Sludge Models (ASMs) and Benchmark Simulation Models (BSMs) are summarized. The automatic control strategies in terms of aeration, chemical phosphorus removal and multi-objective optimization control are described respectively, and the challenges and opportunities in the recent research are presented. Combining the theoretical research and the engineering practice is necessary for the automation process of the urban wastewater treatment plants.