The amount of the dredging and maintenance in the Yangtze River downstream deep channel is essential for the demand analysis of the dredging voule and vessel demand for the maintenance dredging of the Yangtze River deepwater channel involving the decision-making for the types of dredging vessels. This paper summarizes the pre-research work for the maintenance dredging of the Yangtze River channel, discusses the main influential factors and proposes the calculation method for the channel dredging volume under complex working conditions.