Natural and social conditions play a considerable role in regional industrial development and distribution. The water environment's carrying capacity, a major natural factor, has a direct effect on the development of regional industry, particularly in regions with dense water networks. The northern lakeside region of Yangzhou City, which belongs to both the Yangtze and Huaihe basins, was taken as a typical case to discuss the relationship between the water environment's carrying capacity and industrial development. First, we divided the study area into a series of ecological units, 500 m×500 m in size. Second, three indexes (including the drainage component index, water conservancy facilities index, and discrepancy of water quality index) were generated to evaluate the water environment's carrying capacity for each ecological unit through the "multi-factor comprehensive analysis" method. Then, the carrying capacity was classified into five levels, namely:"highest", "higher", "general", "lower", and "lowest", which accounted for 0.38%, 21.74%, 29.67%, 13.65%, and 34.56% of the total area, respectively. Considering the spatial difference of the water environment's carrying capacity and the overall deployment of the national economy, it is appropriate to develop modern ecological agriculture and lake tourism in the study area. These industries are regarded as environmentally friendly or ecological conservation-oriented industries, which belong to the category of green industry. On the one hand, modern ecological agriculture is an important choice for the transformation and development of traditional agriculture. On the other hand, developing a lake-tourism industry is the best way to take full advantage of the rich wetland resources, lake landscape, and modern water conservancy projects. In particular, areas of the Shaobo Lake and inflow rivers further downstream with "higher" and "highest" carrying capacity are suitable for the ecological breeding of special aquatic fauna. Further, the lakeshore and waterfront areas with "general" carrying capacity levels are appropriate for modern ecological farming. The areas between mid-stream and up-stream of rivers with poor "lower" and "lowest" carrying capacity are ideal to cultivate staple crops (rice, cotton, rape, wheat, soybeans, and corn). This area is the main source of agricultural and domestic pollutants. In addition, the suitability of the industrial system has significant feedback for the water environment's carrying capacity. More measures should be taken to strengthen protection for wetlands along the lakeside due to its high ecological sensitivity. Unlike traditional hydrologic methods (using field hydrological data and model), this study provides a new approach to quickly and conveniently assess water environment carrying capacity. The industrial orientation proposed here serves not only an academic and scientific purpose, but also provides important insights for the government to formulate plans for industrial development.