Based on reflected and transmitted waves by a single step bottom, a new model of scatterer method is constructed which can be used to calculate wave transformation over a multi-step topography. The approximate results are tested by comparison with the more accurate results obtained from EFEM presented by Kirby and Dalrymple(1983). In the case of plane-wave approximation, solutions of the scatterer method and the EFEM are the same. Results obtained by the scatterer method with non-propagating modes are much better, in terms of phase for the calculated reflection and transmission coefficients, than those by plane-wave approximation. As the effect of non-propagating modes decreases, solutions of the scatterer method become closer to those of the EFEM.