Abstract: Aiming at a solution to the Tarim River basin's drought, fragile ecological environment, and other issues, this paper analyzes its existing conditions of water resources development and utilization, then proposes ideas for its rational allocation of water resources and principles and priorities of water supply and develops a figure of water distribution network nodes. We established a model for optimal allocation of water resources that minimizes the total shortage of water, using an optimization algorithm for solution of the model. Seven scenarios of different configurations were examined, and by a comparison of their results we recommended two water resources allocation schemes for two target years of planning respectively, satisfying the requirements of guaranteed rate. This study is a technical support to achieving global control and reasonable allocation of the water resources in the Tarim river basin, and would also be useful for water resources allocation in other arid regions.