Abstract: Aquatic ecologic events frequently occurred in urban areas during the past years. Assessment on the health of aquatic ecosystems has been one of the most active fields of research in water sciences. It is the basic tool for the restoration of ecologic systems and the important practice of aquatic ecosystem health on the rivers/lakes management. A systematic summary and classification are made on the basis of river basins，regions，water bodies and organism types. It was found that the indicator-based methods have been widely used in China. According to the factors of climate，geography，hydrology and ecology，China is divided into ten aquatic ecologic zones. Indicators for health assessment are proposed for rivers and lakes/reservoirs，respectively. Case studies show that the proposed indicators are suitable and can be used in other rivers， lakes and reservoirs in China.