Abstract: The objective of the study is to analyze the water shortage in the three outlets of southern Jingjiang river and to provide scientific basis for the sustainable rational utilization of water resources in the region. The use of constant weight methods in previous studies resulted in state imbalance of evaluation indicators. In the present study, the variable weight theory is adopted to define the variable weight of evaluation indicators. Furthermore, in association with gray correlation method, the gray correlation model of water shortage is established and applied to evaluating the water shortage in the three outlets of southern Jingjiang river. The water resources in three outlets of Jingjiang river are all in small shortage, and the shortage degree in Huarong county is the largest, followed by Nanxian county and Anxiang county. The variable weight gray correlation method is feasible and reasonable in calculating water shortage degree, and it meets the requirements of a balanced evaluation.

Key words: variable weight, grey correlation, degree of water shortage, three outlets of Jingjiang River, balance of evaluation indicators