Groundwater discharge (or seepage flow) provides significant fluxes of dissolved chemicals and contaminants to the land surface and water bodies (e.g., oceans, lakes, streams, etc.) which plays an important role to the survival ecosystems in these regions. In some situations, groundwater fluxes may also cause subsurface particles movement and transport them to the surface land and/or surface water bodies. In this study, first the different forms of subsurface particle movement due to groundwater discharge is reviewed and categorized in two main groups including 1) the passage of small particles through immobile pore networks (suffusion) and, 2) the sediment transport through preferential pathways. The latter is divided to three subgroups including preferential flow through a cohesive soil layer leading to the vertical transport of particles from the underlying non-cohesive sediment body, preferential flow within a non-cohesive soil layer caused by localised discharge from below (e.g., due to a fault or fracture) and, widespread fluidisation giving the appearance of boiling sand due to sufficiently high hydraulic gradient. Previous studies do not distinguish between the initial causes and driving processes associated with different forms of subsurface sediment transport; hence, expressions are developed in this study by force balance analysis acting on subsurface particles including seepage (drag) force, buoyancy force and particle weight, to approximate the condition under which groundwater discharge will transport particles to the surface. New simple formulae are developed based on several simplifying assumptions and using existing theories related to piping failure (e.g., of earthen structures), soil fluidization and soil heave. Estimations of critical hydraulic gradients that lead to subsurface sediment transport are then compared to available laboratory test observations to assess the validity of the new formulae developed in this study. The comparison shows that the suffusion more or less is predictable using our simple method, while the condition leading to sediment transport through preferential pathways is poorly matched to the theory. The current study summarises the state of knowledge and knowledge gaps in sediment transport in porous media due to groundwater discharge which has a wide range of applications in coastal sediment transport, to surface water bodies and regions with strong groundwater discharge.