The invention discloses a target locating and tracking method and a target locating and tracking system based on a wireless sensor network. The target locating and tracking system is composed of four basic parts, namely, wireless sensor nodes, gateway nodes, a computing center and a monitoring center, wherein the wireless sensor nodes are composed of a sensing module, a communicating module, a processor module and a power supply module, the plurality of sensor nodes are deployed in a monitoring region, all wireless sensor nodes are communicated with one another in a wireless manner and transmit sensed data signals to the gateway nodes to constitute a wireless network in a self-assembly manner, the gateway nodes are connected with the computing center through a USB interface, and the computing center is connected with the monitoring center through a video signal wire. The target locating and tracking method and the target locating and tracking system disclosed by the invention can be used for monitoring oil transmission pipelines or borders ceaselessly in an all-weather manner, locating and tracking an intrusion target intruding a monitored area, assisting a commander to formulate a disposal scheme and assisting attacks to the intrusion target.