Abstract: The construction of ecological civilization is critical to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and we should put restoring the ecological environment of the Yangtze River at a dominant position to drive watershed economic growth. In this paper, the development course and research status of the ecological waterway were systematically analyzed, and the important progress and breakthrough of ecological waterway technology in the theoretical framework and evaluation system, ecological waterway construction technology, ecological monitoring and restoration compensation method were mainly expounded. The application practices of ecological waterway technology in several large waterway harnessing projects were summarized. Finally, based on the progress and practice of ecological waterway technology in the Yangtze River, the development direction of ecological waterway technology in the future was pointed out.