Water resources are normally defined as the total quantity of water that can be readily use by human beings. Coincident with population expansion and the evolution of human society, water demands are continuously increasing. At the same time, quickly expanded human activities have negatively influenced the health of freshwater systems, contributing to the vulnerability of freshwater resources systems. Thus, wise water resources management is one of the major challenges constraining our ability to achieve sustainable development, and water resources management, as an important component in the ecosystem management goals in the development agenda of all countries. The initiative on vulnerability assessment of freshwater resources under the context of the climate and socioeconomic change will definitely contribute to better decision making in the water sector.

The study of this sub-region was generally carried out in two steps: (1) a general analysis of the status of the water resources in the sub-region; and (2) a comprehensive analysis of five selected major river basins in the sub-region, with the goal of a better understanding of the freshwater resources, in terms of state, drivers and pressures causing the vulnerability, and the impacts resulting from the changed states and responses for overcoming the main threats at the river basin scale. In considering the nature of water resources management, this exercise was based on a conceptual framework designed to examine four important components: (1) water resources formulation from natural hydrologic process; (2) development and use of water resources for maintaining human well-being and socioeconomic development; (3) water resources for maintaining ecological/environmental functions of a river basin; and (4) management capacity.

As part of an UNEP's global initiative on assessment of vulnerability of freshwater resources under a changing global climate, this report summarizes the results from an in-depth vulnerability assessment of freshwater resources in the Northeast Asia sub-region, including a general introduction to the sub-region and the main characteristics of its freshwater resources, including all the countries in the sub-region, and an in-depth synthesis of vulnerability assessment of the freshwater resources, based on the results from the 5 selected river basin assessment case studies, which are attached to this report as appendixes.