Despite much discussion on the definiton of "sustainable development", the concept of sustainable development is not suitable for sustainability assessment of real management or planning problems. The objective of this study was to establish a sustainability assessment of a source water system in a watershed. The paper explores and analyzes the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in various generally accepted definitons. From this conceptual study, an assessment framework of sustainability relating to watershed management is developed and applied to case studies of the Aral Sea disaster and Pal-dang system in Korea, analyzing the current state of source water protection and management. From these case studies some suggestions are made for future modification, monitoring and planning. Includes 18 references, tables, figures.