Water resources are the core resource elements to economic and social development and environment protection in Yangtze River Economic Belt，and are also the difficult and key points in developing ecological community. We attempt to build a framework to guide the sustainability assessment of water resources development and utilization，and we take Yangtze River Economic Belt as the study area. The results show that in recent years，the sustainability of water resources development and utilization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has been continuously improved. However，the following issues should be addressed：improve the social equity of water development and utilization between eastern and western provinces，enhance the overall water utilization efficiency，avoid the water resources development in upstream provinces to affect the environment and ecosystem protection in overall Yangtze River Economic Belt，and consolidate and protect Yangtze River Economic Belt as the important status as strategic water source area in China. Considering the problems and challenges，we try to provide some solutions from the view of Shanghai development，including the following targeted management strategies：improve the coordination of water resources development and utilization and to promote the social equity；promote the implementation of the most stringent water management system and improve the management of both total amount and efficiency of water utilization，then we can improve the water development efficiency in the whole society；optimize the strategic layout and environmental risk control of water sources area to protect the strategic role of water sources area of China；accelerate the implementation of ecological red line management，to protect the water ecology of Yangtze River Economic Belt，and maintain the important function of ecological barrier at the national and global scale.