Abstract: The comprehensive management policy in inland river basin of northwest China attracts extensive attention from scholar, government to household. It aims to restore the eco-environment in downstream, realize the sustainable development of ecology, society and economy among the whole watershed through reallocation of the water resources. It has been implemented successfully in the Tarim River Watershed and Heihe Watershed. In this paper, we focus on the eco-environment changes and the household behavior changes after 7-years implement of the Shiyang River Watershed management policy in the Minqin Oasis by means of questionnaire survey and remote sensing assessment. The water from upstream increased by 444 million m³ from 2007 to 2013. Household stopped reclaiming, and the cultivate land they own reduced more than half from 0.33 hm² per person to 0.17 hm² per person. The share of irrigation water from well decreased by 17.9% due to the water increase from upstream. Household would like to irrigate by means of water-saving. High water consumption crops such as wheat and melon are abandoned by half of household. There are 10.5 thousand of residents are moved to other regions, and 56.1 thousand of rural labors took jobs in other places. 59.3% of the household believed the eco-environment was better than before. The severe moderate and slight desertification land decreased from 2007 to 2013 by 0.24%, 5.35%, 3.5%, respectively. The eco-environment improved obviously in the center of the oasis. Nearly 90% of the households believed that the eco-environment improvement was related to the comprehensive management policy.

Key words: watershed management, policy, household behavior, eco-environment effects, Minqin Oasis