Abstract:The small and medium-sized rivers in cities have a wide range of area and a large amount of water, and the local governments have relatively independent overall management capability and autonomy. In recent years, the river chief system has been established in a large number of small and medium-sized rivers in cities, some achievements have been achieved, but the overall construction work is still lagging behind. Based on the analysis of the successful experience of the legal system construction of the Rhine River in Europe, the practice of the river chief system in Wuxi of Jiangsu Province, the government-enterprise cooperation in Shaoxing of Zhejiang Province and the information technology platform for smart river chiefs, some countermeasures and suggestions are proposed with regard to the deficiency in the river chief system construction of small and medium-sized rivers in cities as follows: reinforcement of the participation of social forces, improvement of the law and regulation systems, strengthening of the compaction of responsibility mechanism, innovation of the digital river and lake management platforms, and control of the excess high water consumption capacity. The river chief system of small and medium-sized rivers in cities should be continuously deepened and promoted in order to make it a sustainable long-term mechanism.