The civil river chiefs pepresent an important form of public participation in the management and protection of rivers and lakes with Chinese characteristics. They serve as an important supplement for the official river chiefs to carry out the work of the river and lake chief system, and play an active role in mobilizing public engagement in water governance and daily supervision of rivers and lakes. The rise of civil river chiefs stems from the people's demand for river and lake governance and their aspiration for a better living environment. Under the guidance of public participation theory, multivariate synergistic governance theory, citizens' participation ladder theory, and stakeholder theory, the civil river chief system has been continuously improved and the form of service has been continuously innovated. Obvious results have been achieved in promoting the official river chiefs' performance of their duties, strengthening the management and protection of rivers and lakes, and improving the outlook of rivers and lakes. In accordance with the requirements of modernization of the ecological environment management system and governance capacity, the deficiencies of civil river chiefs in standardized management, proactive participation awareness, incentive mechanism etc. are analyzed. Improvements are needed in promoting institutional development, fostering public participation awareness, providing professional technical support, diversifying funding sources, and constructing performance evaluation metrics, aiming to promote the transformation of civil river chiefs from “known and real” to “capable and effective”, thereby jointly constructing and sharing happy rivers and lakes.