Abstract: Continuous drought in the summer and autumn of 2022 in the Changjiang River Basin received widespread social concern. Particularly, the severe drought and rarely seen hydrological drought in the middle and lower reaches and the Poyang Lake have caused an impact on agricultural production and ecological environment. This paper first presents the change of total water resources amount in the Changjiang River Basin and the Poyang Lake Basin in 1998-2021, and depicts the change of water use in the two basins over the past decade. In line with the construction of water conservancy projects, the author probes into the changes and problems of drought resistance capacity of the two basins. Comprehensive countermeasures against severe drought are put forward. The research elucidates that the total amount of water resources in the Changjiang River Basin remains stable despite some interannual changes. The Poyang Lake Basin sees a more drastic interannual change but the trend also remains unchanged. Both the Changjiang River Basin and the Poyang Lake Basin maintain a stable water use outside the river channel whereas an increased demand inside river channel for eco-environmental water use. The best measures to deal with severe drought is to highlight such non-engineering measures as stringent water resources management and optimized regulation of water conservancy project groups on the premise of continuous improvement of water conservancy projects and water network construction.

Key words: water resources regulation, water resources management, severe drought, water use, optimization scheduling of water conservancy projects, Changjiang River Basin