The shallow gas-bearing stratum is an unfavorable geology often encountered in engineering construction in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China.In view of the difficulty and low precision of shallow gas-bearing stratum exploration in water area engineering,this study,taking the shallow gas-bearing stratum encountered in the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel of Beiyanjiang High Speed Railway as an engineering background,introduced the application of multifunctional piezocone penetration test and verified the effectiveness of this detection method.Then,the distribution and occurrence characteristics of shallow gas along the tunnel were obtained by means of comparison with the drilling results.The results show that the multifunctional piezocone penetration test is an economical and efficient method for exploring the unique shallow gas-bearing strata in water-based projects,which can obtain the information of gas-bearing strata effectively.The fine identification of gas-bearing strata can be achieved by using multifunctional parameters to check and correct the static detection results.This technique provides technical support for the investigation of special stratum in large water area engineering,and can also provide reference for similar projects.