Abstract: Based on the concept that the damaging degrees of eutrophication are related to the geological locations,hydrodynamic status and other conditions,a new concept of eutrophication sensitivity classification at small scale is proposed,which extends the control hierarchy of eutrophication from river-lake two-hierarchy to multi-hierarchy classification system.Meanwhile,the general concepts concerning the indicators system adopted in this hierarchy method are put forward.This method is compared with the large scale hierarchy method given by USEPA.It is pointed out that the nutrient criterions for the rivers & streams and lakes & reservoirs used in the fourteen nutrient ecoregions by USEPA are disharmonious,and the application of the USEPA hierarchy method to establish the nutrient criterions for rivers & streams and lakes & reservoirs will result in unreasonable results probably,that is,the controlling indicators for rivers & streams criterions will be more stricter than those for lakes & reservoirs ones in same ecoregions.