In order to protect the ecological environment of wetland in the northern region and restore the diversity of species, the primary task is to determine the ecological water requirement of the wetland and then determine the amount of the water needed. According to the river wetlands in the northern region, this paper takes the wetland of Yufuhe river in Jinan city as an example, considering the water net evaporation of wet years, normal years or dry years under the different precipitation conditions and combing with the water requirements of vegetation, soil, wildlife habitat and groundwater recharge, and then summarize the ideal, suitable and minimum ecological water requirements for different ecological goals by using the water balance method. The calculation results show that: the ideal, suitable and minimum ecological water requirements for the consumption of the lowest ecological objectives are 5.97~7.01×106 m3, 3.95~4.85×106 m3 and 1.93~2.83×106 m3; the ideal, suitable and minimum ecological water requirements for the protection of the rational ecological objectives are 9.83~11.17×106 m3, 5.81~6.91×106 m3 and 2.75~3.76×106 m3. The results of this paper provide a theoretical support for the restoration of wetland ecological environment and the restoration of species diversity.