Abstract: Water resources scarcity and water environmental degradation have been the serious problems facing the world today,especially in developing countries.It is very urgent and significant to carry out the studies concerning water resources and water environmental carrying capacity to address the relationships and coordination between/of water system and human socio-economic system.This paper reviews the state of the art of the studies on water resources and water environmental carrying capacity,their concepts,characteristics,quantification and assessment methodology,and points out the deficiencies in current studies and the future research requirements.