Abstract: Urban riparian zone is a category of ecological space where land and water interact. As an important vegetation type in urban riparian zone, herbaceous plants can provide important support for microclimate regulation, carbon-oxygen cycle driving, biodiversity improvement and other ecosystem services. At present, the sustainability and functionality of herbaceous plant community in urban riparian zone are poor due to the bottleneck in the construction of artificial herbaceous plant community. This research defines the close-to-nature goal orientation through interpreting the influencing mechanism of herbaceous plant community on the ecosystem service function of urban riparian zone and, through analyzing the connotation of the concept of close-to-nature, summarizes the construction methods for herbaceous plant community in urban riparian zone as follows: 1) selecting plant species with high adaptability; 2) planting a variety of symbiotic plants; 3) designing and deducing the spatial multi-layer structure of herbaceous plant community; 4) designing and deducing the dynamic changes of community phenology. Taking the Hunhe River in Shenyang as an example, the research preliminarily proposes an experimental research approach and specific operation methods for the construction of herbaceous plant community in urban riparian zone, in hope of providing theoretical reference for the improvement of ecosystem service function and construction of sustainable herbaceous plant community in urban riparian zones and waterfront green spaces in China.