Abstract: The rational allocation of water resources for irrigation is important to improve the efficiency in utilization of water resources and ensuring food security, but also effective control measures need to be in place for the sustainable utilization of water resources in an irrigation area. The progress of research on the rational allocation of water resources in irrigation districts both at home and abroad may be summarized in four key aspects of the policy regarding water resources management: ① The mechanism of water resource cycle and ② Transformation in irrigation district, ③ The water resources optimal allocation model and ④ The hydrological ecosystem analysis in irrigation district. Our analysis showed that there are four major problems in domestic irrigation water resources allocation: Policies for rational water resources allocation and protection are not in place, unified management mechanism of water resources is not perfect, the model for optimal water resources allocation is not practical, and the basic conditions for optimal allocation of water resources is relatively weak. In order to solve those problems in water resources allocation practice, six important aspects must be the focus in China in future research: More attention need to paid to studying the unified management policy and mechanism of water resources, studying the water resources cycle and transformation under environmental change, studying new methods for water resources carrying capacity and evaluation in irrigation districts, studying the water resources control technology in irrigation districts by hydrology ecological system, studying the technologies of real-time risk dispatching and intelligent management in irrigation districts, and finally studying the technology of coupling optimal allocation technology in irrigation districts.