Based on the identification of ecological risk sources (climate change, ditch construction, agricultural non- point source pollution, and wetland tourism) and receptors (regressive succession of plant community, decrease of biodiversity, and degradation of carbon sequestration function) of the wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain, the scale contradiction problem between risk sources and receptors was explored. The results indicated that the majority of risk sources stemmed from region or watershed scale (the outside of the wetlands) whereas the risk receptors mainly originated from the inside of the wetlands. To solve this issue, 2 types of solutions were proposed, for example, the up-scaling (expanding the scope of risk receptors to region or watershed scale to match the risk sources) and down-scaling (narrowing the scope of risk sources to local even site scale to match the risk receptors) approaches. Using the proposed approach, the reasonable regional ecological risk assessment in wetlands of the Sanjiang Plain was discussed subsequently, including the specialization scheme of risk sources (covering down-scaling of climate change scenario, mapping of ditch density, modeling of agricultural non-point source pollution, and buffer analysis of wetland tourism intensity), the construction of ecological assets index and vulnerability index, and the expression issue of risk value. This work will essentially promote regional ecological risk assessment research for wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain.