河长制是现代水环境管理制度的创新，是水生态国家治理的重要途经之一。结合文献分析和GIS空间可视化方法，对河长制推行的时空历程及政策影响因素的研究显示，河长制推行从初创推广（2007-2009）、扩散显现前期（2009-2014）、扩散显现后期（2014-2016）和全面推行（2016-2017）等发展阶段，总体上表现为早期缓慢上升、之后快速上升到现今的稳定实施趋势；从空间延伸来看，体现为由华东、东北、西南地区逐渐向西北、青藏地区扩散，且跨区效应、邻近效应、轴向效应和集聚效应显著的特点。河长制的早期推行过程是地方政府的个别行为，但随着各级各部门相关政策法规的出台，河长制推行的时空历程明显受到中央和地方政府政策的影响。在河长实践-政策法规出台推广-河长实践全面推广的实践与制度相互促进的过程中，各级各部门间的借鉴、协作以及中央-地方河长制垂直管理格局的形成，为中国的水环境管理提供了良好的政策支持，也为国家环境治理体系的法制化提供了治理实践和经验借鉴。

The RCS was an innovation of the modern water environment management system, and one of the important ways to promote the national governance of water ecological in china. Combined literature analysis and GIS spatial visualization methods, the research on the spatial-temporal implementation pattern and policy impact of RCS show that: (1)The implement of RCS has undergone the individual initial stage（2007-2009）, the local diffusion early stage(2009-2014), the local diffusion late stage(2014-2016) and the overall promotion stage(2016-2017), which shows the trend of gradual rise in the early stage, rapid rise in the middle stage and steady implementation in the late stage.(2) The spatial extension processes is from east, northeast, southwest to northwest and Qinghai-Tibetan area, which has remarkable patterns of cross-regional effect, adjacent effect, axial effect and agglomerate effect. (3) The early implementation of the RCS was only individual behavior of some local governments. However, as relevant policies and regulations roll out at all levels and various departments, the temporal and spatial implementing processes of the RCS have been obviously affected by the policies and regulations of the central and local governments. In the coordination of the practice of the RCS, the launch of corresponding rules and laws and the comprehensive implementation of that system, various departments at all levels have worked together, and a central-local river system vertical management pattern has been developed, which gives sound policy support to China’s water environment governance and provides a practical lesson for the legalization of the national environmental governance system.