Abstract: According to the sustainable development request of the economic society,the control objectives of water resources in the Yellow River basin is described. On the basis of this,combing the utilization characteristic of water resources in the YR basin,the index system is put forward,containing the control objective of water resources from two aspects which are the utilization effect of water resources and the sustainable development.Combined with the utility theory,the artificial neural network theory and the ideal-point technique organically,the assessment model for water resources utilization effect of the control alter-native is estoblished.The sustainable development evaluation criterions and quantitative evaluation method are proposed in terms of water resources utilization according to the connotation of the sustainable development.The feasibility of the model and method is confirmed by 8 water resources control alternatives in the Yellow River basin.