Along with the further development of economy in China and the implementation of sustainable development strategy, the inland river shipping with advantages of high shipping capacity, low land occupancy, low energy consumption, and little pollution will certainly play greater functions. In addition, the standardization and large-sized trend of inland river vessels become more and more obvious. The small-tonnage ships are being rapidly obsolete due to its disadvantages in capacity and cost-effectiveness. The waterway classification of many districts which was defined in early years has already been not adapted to the developing need of inland river shipping. If the urban development is planned and controlled according to the inappropriate waterway classification standard, the development of inland river shipping will be greatly restricted and it will create great concerns to the navigation safety of vessels. Based on the actual situations, this paper is set out to discuss several ideas and bring forward relevant proposals for the adjustment of inland waterway classification at the Yangtze River delta region.