Abstract: Water front resources is an important natural resource closely related to human beings, which is at the core of the interactive relationship among population, resources, environment and economic development. As an important supporting resource and key object of development in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, the Yangtze River water front resources play an irreplaceable important production, life and ecological function. In the context of “joint efforts to protect the Yangtze river rather than develop it”, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the “Investigation and Assessment of Water Front Resources in the Yangtze River Economic Zone” project in 2017, which is a key project of the STS program of Chinese academy of sciences, aiming at the major scientific and technological needs of ecological restoration of the Yangtze river. Since the implementation of the project, the project team has obtained the system data of the natural background, resource conditions, utilization status and ecological environment of seven major tributaries of the Yangtze river by means of high-resolution remote sensing image interpretation, field investigation and field monitoring. The purpose of researching and judging the water front resources conditions and the overall development and utilization situation of the main tributaries of the Yangtze river is to coordinate the development and utilization of water front resources, strengthen the protection of resources, and maintain the fine ecological environment of the land and waters near the water front. Based on the analysis of ecological environment sensitivity, the project identifies the key problems in the utilization of water front resources and evaluates the cumulative impact of water front development and utilization activities on the ecological environment. On the basis of the comprehensive evaluation of water front resources, the water front space control zone is defined and the control requirements of different water front types are proposed.