Abstract: Correctly grasping the status of water ecological civilization construction in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important support for promoting the protection of the Yangtze River.Based on the DPSIRM model, a water ecological civilization construction level evaluation system is constructed.Based on panel data from 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2004 to 2017,we explore the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the water ecological civilization construction level in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and analyze the internal relationship of each subsystem.According to the analysis framework of “drive-state-influence-response-management”,the path to realize water ecological civilization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is finally put forward.The research results show that from the perspective of time, the level of water ecological civilization construction in the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed an obvious upward trend from 2004 to 2017.From the spatial level, the regional heterogeneity of the level of water ecological civilization construction is more significant, showing a pattern of “strong in the east, west and weak in the central region”,but the gap between regions is gradually narrowing, the optimization speed shows a trend of “fast in the central and west region, slow in the east”.From the perspective of the realization path of water ecological civilization, the main constraint factor for the overall improvement is the response subsystem.Therefore, when provinces and cities try to optimize the development path in a way of “driving force-pressure-status-impact-response-management”,attention should be paid to the implementation of response measures to promote the construction of aquatic ecological civilization.