Abstract: one of great inland rivers basins in Northwest China,the Heihe River Basin drains an area of 130000 Km².The main-stream called Heihe, with its course of 821 km,rises from the Qilian Mountains, flows through the Hexi Corridor of the Gansu Province and discharges into the western part of the Inner Mongolia plateau.The paper deals with quantitative and qualitative evaluations of water resources,land resources and pasture resources in the Basin.The present situation of these resources use was investigated and environmental quality in the Basin evaluated in the paper.At the same time,we analysed the environmental impact problems caused by water resource development and their use and resources potential. It is referred that water resources development has affected the scale of oasis establishment in the middle Basin and oasis exist in the Lower Basin at present stage.It is presented that water development and optimal use should coordinate both objectives of economic development and environment protection; At present, the Basin development as a whole will be carried out by adopting feasible measures for safeguarding stability of oases in the lower Basin and overall planning the water utilization and management of quantitative allocation according to division of upper, middle and lower reaches in the Basin. Meanwhile, it is recommended to take efficient measures of engineering water resources system project, in the Basin, macroscopical control and management of water resources utilization in the middle and lower Basin in order to increase economic benefit and give full play to the environmental and social benefits.