Abstract: The urban waterfront recreation space and recreation activities interact each other, recreation space provides material base for recreation activities, affect the time and space distribution of the recreation activities, recreation activities guide the layout, function and characteristics of the recreation space elements, Only the coordinated development of the two can promote the sustainable and high-quality development of the recreation space in the urban waterfront. Taking the waterfront of Qinhuai river in Nanjing for example, based on the electronic map point of interest (POI), Baidu thermal chart, construction of urban waterfront recreation space and recreation activities coupling model, coupling elements on its recreation space and recreation activities coordination characteristics and the influence mechanism is analyzed, the results show that: (1) the overall coupling coordination degree of waterfront recreation space and recreation activity of Qinhuai river in Nanjing is low; The coupling coordination degree is generally not balanced, “high in the middle, low on both sides”, with Confucius Temple as the center, the more to the periphery the coupling coordination degree is lower. (2) The coupling coordination of production space is the best, followed by living space and public space, and the landscape space and ecological space is the lowest. The coupling forms of recreation space elements and recreation activities are different among different types in working days and rest days.(3)The coupling of recreation space and recreation activities in the Qinhuai River waterfront in Nanjing is influenced by the market supply and demand mechanism, agglomeration-diffusion effect and government regulation mechanism.