In order to timely and accurately monitor the amount of water exchanged between the control area of the hydrological station network and the outer river,it is necessary to reasonably plan the station setting batch at the main entrance according to the river water condition,site environment,work demand,etc.,as well as improve the station network layout in a planned way. Taking Qingpu District of Shanghai as an example,considering the current situation of setting up stations at the main entrance of the regional control area,and using the existing data,this paper analyzes not only the necessity of station setting from the aspects of regional development,river level,model demand,water volume and flow variation amplitude,but also the feasibility from water layer representativeness,section topography, station site conditions,infrastructure cost and flow velocity distribution. The goal decomposition method is applied to establish the index system of station setting and the Delphi method is utilized to determine the weight of each index. The linear weighted summation method is adopted for comprehensive selection,and then the batches of stations set are determined. The results show that there are three batches of stations at the main entrance of the control area in Qingpu District,with 7,5 and 3 stations in each batch,which can provide a new method for the selection analysis of stations at the main entrance of the control area in the tidal river network region of the southern plain.