Urban waterfront areas play a crucial role in maintaining urban ecological security and enhancing landscape quality. However, current waterfront green spaces commonly face problems such as excessive artifi ciality, high maintenance costs, and poor resilience to hydrological disturbances, hindering the normal functioning of ecosystem services. The concept of near-natural green spaces off ers a new pathway to address the predicament of waterfront green spaces. Taking the waterfront of the “Two Rivers and Four Banks” area in Chongqing’s central urban area as the study area and focusing on the complex terrain and hydrological dynamic characteristics, we investigated 14 sample plots and 218 waterfront natural plant community quadrats. A total of 116 species belonging to 102 genera and 41 families were recorded, with Asteraceae and Poaceae being the dominant families, and herbaceous plants occupying a signifi cant growth advantage as pioneer species. Based on the survey data, a hierarchical analysis (AHP) was used to construct an evaluation system, which identifi ed 70 native plant species suitable for the construction of near-natural waterfront plant communities. Based on the comprehensive scores from the screening evaluation, the 70 plant species were divided into four grades. Grade I and Grade II should be given priority in the construction of near-natural plant communities in Chongqing waterfront green spaces, while Grade III and Grade IV can be used as supplementary species to enhance community and ornamental plant diversity, based on specifi c needs. The research results contribute to enhancing the ecological functions and landscape value of Chongqing’s waterfront green spaces and to promoting their green, low-carbon, and sustainable development.