Lishui City is located in the mountainous area in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, between 118°41 '~120°26' E and 27°25 '~28°57' N. It has one municipal district in Liandu District, which has jurisdiction over Qingtian, Jinyun, Yunhe, Qingyuan, Songyang and Jingning counties, and takes charge of Longquan City. It is adjacent to Wenzhou in the southeast, Nanping and Ningde in the southwest of Fujian Province, Quzhou City in the northwest, Jinhua in the north, and Taizhou in the northeast. Its jurisdiction covers a total area of 17,300 square kilometers, making it the largest prefecture-level city in land area of Zhejiang Province.

More than 90% of the area under the jurisdiction of the city is mountainous, known as nine mountains and half water and half fields.  Landform to hills and middle height mountains, numerous canyons, between the narrow and long mountain basin as the basic characteristics. The terrain is roughly tilted from southwest to northeast, and the southwest is dominated by middle height mountains, with low mountains, hills and valleys between mountains. Northeast to low mountain - based, between the middle height mountains and valley basin. There are 3,573 mountains with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters and 244 peaks with an altitude of more than 1,500 meters. It is reputed as Green Valley of Zhejiang and Ecological Barrier of East China.

Lishui is the subtropical monsoon climate, which is the typical mountain climate with clear four seasons, abundant rainfall, long frost-free period that makes Lishui warm and humid. The annual average temperature is 18.2~19.6 degrees Celsius, the frost-free period is 246~274 days, the annual rain days are 154~186 days, the annual rainfall is 1309.9~1970.5 mm, the annual sunshine hours are 1102.3~1759.6 hours, the annual total radiation is 102.1~110.0 degree of light. The city's perennial dominant wind direction is easterly northeast, the annual average wind speed in 0.8~2.2 m/s. Lishui City is an area with frequent meteorological disasters, which are prone to secondary or derivative disasters such as floods, landslides and forest fires.

There are Oujiang River, Qiantang River, Feiyun River, Jiaojiang River, Minjiang River and Saijiang River in Lishui City, which is known as the source of the six rivers. The stream runs parallel to the mountain. The Xianxialing Mountains are the watershed between the Oujiang River and the Qiantang River, the Donggong Mountains are the watershed between the Oujiang River and the Minjiang River, the Feiyun River and the Saijiang River, and the Kuacang Mountains are the watershed between the Oujiang River and the Jiaojiang River. The terrain on both sides is steep, the river and the stream source are short and rapid, the riverbed is cut deep, and the water level is affected by the rain, and it is a mountain stream river. Oujiang originates in Qingyuan County, Longquan City at the junction of the Donggong Mountain pot hat tip at the northwest foot, winding from west to east, the main stream is 388 kilometers long, 316 kilometers long within the territory, the basin area of 12985.47 square kilometers, accounting for 78% of the total area of the city, is the city's first river.