Abstract: This paper addresses issues on water resource vulnerability under climate change background. The concept and connotation of water resource vulnerability and the corresponding adaptive management are presented. The quantitative evaluation methods of water resource vulnerability, mainly include the index weight method, function and integrated indicator methods. The water resource vulnerability not only has natural variability but also is affected by changes in relationship between water supply and demand resulted from climate change and the impacts of droughts and floods. The key issue is to identify the governing variables which have main influence on water resource vulnerability. For future perspective, study on water resource vulnerability will go to adaptive management.

Key words: water resources, vulnerability, quantitative assessment method, adaptive management