Abstract: River sections measurement in the middle reaches of Changjiang River is a key fundamental work to study the evolution of river channels and to support flood control and comprehensive harnessing works in the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River.Compared with the traditional real-time dynamic positioning (RTK) and inclined photogrammetry, the airborne LiDAR technology is highly efficient and more penetrating, which can realize fine land measurement of the river section and water level extraction.In this study, comprehensive measurements of the middle reaches of the Changjiang River were carried out using airborne LiDAR, the application of LiDAR point cloud in water level extraction and land measurement was systematically analyzed, and the measurement accuracies of the important feature points and the section area of local river sections were evaluated.The results show that when extracting water levels in the section, the percentage of sections with the absolute value of the difference between the point cloud data and the traditional measured water level elevation within 0.1 m reaches 76%.The planar position and elevation accuracy of the point cloud data on land section meet the specification requirements, and the cross-sectional area difference between the point cloud and RTK measurement is within 1%, which shows that the airborne LiDAR technology can adapt to the complex topography in the middle reaches of the Changjiang River, and more efficiently and accurately achieve the river cross-section measurement and water level monitoring.