Three aspects of the eastern section of the inner Qinhuai River in Nanjing were examined: ecological factors, social factors and landscape factors. We investigated the landscape status, historical culture and human characteristics of urban river open space landscape restoration. Using the data obtained from the expert questionnaire, we determined the weight of each index through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and constructed a post-rehabilitation evaluation model of urban river open space landscape restoration. Combined with the data obtained from the field questionnaire survey, the post-rehabilitation evaluation of the eastern section of the inner Qinhuai River in Nanjing was obtained via the distance index method.

The ecological factor had the highest weight value in the criterion layer with a weight of 0.521 4, accounting for 52.14% of the total proportion, followed by the social factor with a weight of 0.253 7, and finally the landscape factor with a weight of 0.224 9. In the indicator layer, the weight value of water quality in ecological factors was up to 0.221 8, the weight value of accessibility in social factors was up to 0.102 1, and the weight value of recreational functions in landscape factors was up to 0.118 4. The post-rehabilitation evaluation level of the eastern section of the inner Qinhuai River in Nanjing (distance index was 0.23), the distance index of ecological factors (0.19), the distance index of social factors (0.14), and the distance index of landscape factors (0.42) were all appropriate. By ordering the weights of the index factors, it becomes clear that improvement of water quality is the most critical factor for the open space of urban rivers. The landscape restoration of the eastern section of the inner Qinhuai River in Nanjing has achieved good results in general, but the hydrophilicity of the rivers needs to be further improved. Based on the analysis of the evaluation results of people in different age groups, it is concluded that there are significant differences in the evaluation results of young and middle-aged people on the three indicators of safety, recreational function, and hydrophilicity and near-water bank.

The post-recovery evaluation model of urban river open space landscape restoration constructed by this research provides an objective and accurate evaluation method for urban river open space landscape restoration. This can provide a theoretical basis for post-rehabilitation evaluation of urban river open space landscape under different conditions in the future.