Economic and social development has greatly increased ecological water demand and modified land use of river systems worldwide, causing overall degradation of many of these systems. In this study, theoretical and technical frameworks for regionalization on the eco-environmental function of river systems are formulated and applied to the Luanhe River system. Based on its eco-environmental functions, this river can be regionalized into four types of first-class functional areas: ecological preservation areas, habitat restoration areas, ecological buffer areas and development and utilization areas. Considering the overall eco-environmental functions, we assessed the ecological land use of the Luanhe River system.