Abstract: The canal waterfront area is one of the important urban public spaces, and the quality of its waterfront landscape is an important criterion to measure the quality of the urban waterfront landscape. However, the current lack of quantitative data support and the lack of prioritization of the influencing factors of waterfront landscape quality make it impossible to propose targeted strategies to promote the improvement of waterfront landscape quality. Taking Shangtang River in Suzhou as an example, through questionnaire survey and IPA-KANO model and other analytical methods, the waterfront landscape quality evaluation of Shangtang River in Suzhou was studied. Relying on the index system and constructing an "explicit-recessive matrix", the paper formed three types of elements that affected the quality of the waterfront landscape of the ancient canal. Combined with the actual performance of the three types of elements, optimization strategies were proposed to create characteristic cultural landscape nodes, construct ecological cultural spaces, and excavate ancient canal water cultural resources.