Abstract: With the development of industrialization and urbanization, untreated domestic sewage, industrial sewage and pollutants of surface runoff in the rainy season are discharged into the river system, leading to the serious urban water pollution. Due to the complexity and variability of the sources of urban polluted water bodies and environmental conditions, the current river restoration focuses on the rapid recovery of water quality, but does not fundamentally clarify the source of pollution, and does not consider the restoration of river water ecosystem damage. It leads to the fact that urban river is characterized with poor ability of self-purification and imperfect biodiversity, meanwhile, it is difficult to maintain and continuously improve water quality. This paper systematically illustrates the development process and inherent science of the concept of near naturalization restoration and urban sponge city. Both of them have separate characteristics, the concept and measures of which have commonality with the urban river restoration. The ecological restoration under the guidance of near-naturalization concept is beneficial to restore the hydrological continuity of river channels, to reshape the meandering and winding landscape of rivers, to increase the biodiversity index, making full use of their original ecological functions and values. Whereas, the concept of sponge city can effectively reduce surface runoff, purify, accumulate, utilize rainwater and alleviate the discharge of pollutants into river or water bodies. They also contribute to the mitigation of flooding risk and improvement of river dredging and drainage functions. In addition, this paper summarizes the near-naturalized and sponge city part from the project carried out in Fuyang City, Anhui Province. Through the combination technology of “source control, pollution interception, dredging, water diversion and management”, ecological restoration makes the near naturalization and sponge city integrated, which also emphasizes the construction of food chain system and greening management in the river channels. The two concepts focus on the restoration of self-purification capacity of the river and the reconstruction of ecosystem integrity, emphasize the treatment and reuse of rainwater resources, achieving the harmonious development of urban ecological restoration and landscape. Finally, to ensure the sound cycle and sustainable development of urban water ecosystem, the paper develops the direction of urban river restoration under the concept of near naturalization and sponge city intersection based on the current advanced environmental remediation and administration of domestic and foreign countries. It mainly includes two aspects: one is that the river restoration should be implemented in combination with the over-all planning of urban areas, making the river channel construction as an organic component of urban landscape; the other one is to gradually establish the evaluation indicators and standard for urban river restoration, including the traditional water quality indicators and those indicators related to the biological habitat and biodiversity.