Taking 398 CSSCI literature on ecological governance research in China from 1998 to 2020 by China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) as the research object, the CiteSpace tool was used to visually analyze the literature characteristics and research hotspots in this field, systematically sort out and explore the hot frontiers and development trends in this field. Research has found that the current average annual publication volume in this field has reached 30 articles, which is the research hotspot with the rapid development in the academic community; The research in this field takes the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the core, and maintains close cooperation with universities or research institutions such as Tianjin University, the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecological Environment and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, forming a relatively wide range of research cooperation groups and some typical institutional cooperation groups. The majority of author collaborations in this field are in groups of 2~4, but a relatively stable core author group has not yet been formed. The research in this field focuses on “ecological environment” as the core hotspot, and the emergence intensity of “environmental governance” “collaborative governance” “restoration governance” and “environmental pollution”is relatively high. Environmental restoration and environmental pollution are the main entry points in this field. The overall trend of research frontiers is from single to comprehensive development, and the hot topics of research include problem analysis and evaluation measurement, exploration of governance measures, and collaborative governance research. The collaborative governance of multiple regional entities and the collaborative governance of regional ecological environment are two important aspects of future research in this field.