The interaction between surface water and groundwater in the basin includes the stable recharge of deep groundwater to the river in dry season, the formation of fast and slow soil flow after rainfall infiltration, and the vertical exchange from surface water to groundwater caused by the rise of river water level during flood period. However, there is no clear definition of the composition of groundwater-surface water exchange capacity, and the existing hydrological conceptual models cannot indentify different components of groundwater-surface water exchange. Therefore, based on the hydrograph of hydrological elements, a new technical framework combined with three different classical hydrological methods, namely Xin’anjiang model, improved Muskingum-Cunge (MC) method and base-flow separation method, was proposed to study the composition of groundwater-surface water exchange, and the Wuyuan River Baisn was taken as an example. The results show that the groundwater-surface water exchange capacity of Wuyuan River Basin accounts for 43.54%-54.66% of the total runoff of the outlet section. Among them, the shallow groundwater in the saturation zone accounts for 8.41%-10.57%; the water that infiltrates into the shallow soil through rainfall and rapidly replenishes the river accounts for 6.81%-20.59%; and the stable recharge from deep groundwater accounts for 23.34%-26.54% of the total runoff. The proposed technical framework can clearly identify the components of groundwater-surface water interaction, and it can provide a basis for water resources protection and management in similar basins.