Abstract: In China, a large number of river regeneration projects have sprung up since the 1980s. They played a remarkable role in promoting city development as well as improving the urban ecological environment. This research conducts a retrospective analysis of domestic projects over the past 20 years, focusing on the role of social and economic backgrounds in promoting the river regeneration projects. It introduces the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) model for complex variables, which expands the visions and methods of urban river regeneration researches. A total of 52 river regeneration projects are chosen to reveal the influence and corresponding relationship of various background factors through MCA. The result discloses the development trend of river regeneration projects based on the four driving forces of “city event, stormwater management, ecological restoration and landscape promotion” through the analysis of relationship of the spatial and temporal patterns and the target value cognition. It provides references and suggestions for the planning and design of domestic river regeneration projects and related projects.