In the new era，the comparative advantages of inland river shipping，such as less land occupation，less energy consumption，and environmental friendliness，are becoming more and more obvious. The development of inland river shipping has reached a higher level. One sidedness of the traditional economic evaluation method based on transportation efficiency gets increasingly prominent. We systematically summarize the previous relevant studies at home and abroad，further improve them according to the new characteristics in the new era. Then with full consideration of the benefits on comprehensive transportation，regional economic and social development，ecological and environment protection，and culture and tourism by the engineering construction of inland river shipping，we establish a set of index system for the comprehensive economic evaluation of the inland river shipping development，briefly discuss the quantitative and monetized calculation method of each evaluation index，and take the navigation recovery project of the section north of the Yellow River of Beijing-Hangzhou Canal as an example to make an empirical analysis. The results can provide a decision-making reference for the economic evaluation of inland shipping development in the new era.