Abstract: Alternative comparison in water transfer project plays an important role in the project feasibility research and the environmental impact assessment.The hierarchical comparison of alternatives, a new technology for project assessment, is developed based on the features of water transfer.The shallow lake, Baiyangdian, is selected as a case study to make a hierarchical comparison of alternatives in water transfer from two upstream reservoirs.Results indicate that the hierarchical comparison of alternatives is proved to be useful in assessing the effectiveness of all alternatives in comparison with convent ional methods, can availably avoid pretermission of alternatives, and compare the analytic alternatives scientifically.