Abstract: The water front resources of the Yangtze River are important to support the socio-economic development along the Yangtze River. At the same time, they are at the border between water and land with irreplaceable ecological value. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the scale of the water front utilization of container ports in the mainstream of the Yangtze River and analyze the water front organizational structure and change characteristics of container ports by analyzing remote sensing images and related data. Based on this, various types of environmental protection areas are used as representative items to explore the impact of container port shipping on water front resources and the environment. Also, how to coordinate the rational organization of productive water fronts to achieve the unity of development and protection under the pressure of the Yangtze River resources for environmental pressure is discussed in this paper. The conclusions are as follows:The scale of the water front of the Yangtze River container port has increased significantly during the study period. The scale of container ports in the downstream region occupies the highest share in the region, while the utilization rate of the upper and middle regions is growing faster. The upper, middle and lower reaches respectively form a relatively dense distribution area of container ports and terminals. Large ports are often located downstream with a continuous development trend, while large or very large ports are only located in the central and upper reaches of the hub city. The development of container ports has a large-scale trend. The replacement of ports is mainly based on small-scale reductions, and the center of gravity of newly-built, reconstructed and expanded ports is inclined to large and medium-sized. The port water front continued to grow while accelerating the invasion of protected shore sections. The scale and proportion of the newly-occupied docks have reached a relatively high level, and many ports and docks have to be kept because most of the available shores in their cities are located in protected areas. Few of the demolished ports are directly related to the environment protection, and there are still a certain number of small and medium-sized ports located in the protected area. As a new type of water front utilization, the construction and operation of container ports should meet the requirements of environmental friendliness and reverse the opposite relationship between development and protection. The relationship can be summed up as two stages of conflict and mitigation. The conflict between ports development and protection is inevitable. The transport capacity of container ports occupying the protected areas has reached a considerable scale. However, during the study period, especially after 2015, the port expansion slowed down and the main direction was to improve the efficiency of water front utilization. The relationship between development and protection has eased. In the subsequent construction of container ports, it is necessary to make the overall use of the water front and correctly handle the relationship between development and protection. Meanwhile, various development activities must meet environmental protection requirements.