As public products, rural rivers present governance challenges due to their public attributes and the externalities associated with related activities. This requires the engagement of multiple subjects in the practice of river collaborative governance. Using the triangle model of public value creation as the analysis framework and based on the case of river governance in Z Town, Lianyungang City, it is found that the collaborative governance of rural rivers faces practical challenges such as dislocation of collaborative concept, inefficiency of collaborative process, and failure of achievement integration. From the three dimensions of public value, corresponding optimization paths are proposed, including introducing public value, optimizing the authorization path and improving operation ability, in order to maximize public value and promote the practice of collaborative governance of rural rivers.