A zonal evaluation of water resource use in the fourteen cities of Hu'nan Province was carried out using the osculating value method. Accord-ing to the scatter plot of the osculating values,the utilization level of water resource was categorized into three zones:(1)weakly developed zone,(2) moderately developed zone,and (3) highly developed zone.A detailed map was drawn based on the classification.The results show that among the fourteen cities,five cities were classified as weakly developed zone,six cities as moderately developed zone and three cities as highly developed zone.The weakly developed zone accounts for 35.7%of the total area.Overall,the water resource use in Hu'nan Province is imbalanced.Appropriate practices are need in areas with different development levels.