Abstract: With development of China's social economy，problems of water resources shortage and water environment deterioration have become increasingly prominent，and sustainable utilization of water resources in arid areas has become a hot spot in the world.Based on current situation of water resources development and utilization in arid areas，evaluation methods of water resources sustainable utilization at home and abroad were combed and summarized，and evaluation methods suitable for water resources sustainable utilization in arid areas were put forward according to different research purposes，aiming at promoting improvement and perfection of evaluation methods of water resources sustainable utilization.