The invention discloses a device used for monitoring the surface flow rate and flow of a river or a strait by utilizing a very high frequency/ultra high frequency (VHF/UHF) radar, and particularly relates to a river flow monitoring device based on the VHF/UHF portable radar. The river flow monitoring device is erected on a shore side which keeps a certain distance from a river bank, the estimation of water velocity of the river or the strait can be accurately achieved by utilizing the Bragg principle, the river flow monitoring device can measure the radial velocity of thousands of points in the different distances and different wave beam ranges between the upper stream and the lower stream of the river, and a discharge flow vector diagram is calculated through a host computer. The river flow monitoring device based on the VHF/UHF portable radar can work all weather, is characterized by being small in cost, small in size, light in weight, low in power consumption, and the like, and can meet the requirements of vehicle mounting and installation of a portable base station. The river flow monitoring device based on the VHF/UHF portable radar resolves the problems that traditional flow measuring technology is large in text difficulty and is low in measuring accuracy, and test conditions are heavily affected by the geographical environment and weather, and has the advantages of being high in measuring accuracy, simple in structure, high in reliability, light in weight, portable, easy to install, and the like.