Land use affects regional hydrological processes. The alteration of regional distributions of vegetation, crop types, and land-use patterns for construction has a significant impact on the runoff process and influences the water cycle in watersheds. Studies on runoff variations in the Hutuo River Basin have concentrated on climate change and the effect of human activities without adequate attention paid to land-use changes. In order to investigate the response of runoff to land-use changes in the upper Hutuo River Basin, a soil and water assessment model was used in this study to compare and analyze the changes in runoff under five land-use scenarios from 1980–2020. The results show that the area of farmland, forest land, and grassland in the watershed gradually decreased from 1980 to 2020, with a total decrease of 3.1%, while the area of urban construction land increased rapidly by 1.5 times. Corresponding with the trend of land-use change, the differences between the simulated and natural values for regional flood peak and annual runoff increased with time, which is in line with the changing land-use trends. From 1960–2020, the differences between the simulated and natural values for the flood peaks of the five land-use scenarios were −16.8, −6.7, −3.5, 4.6, and 9.3%, respectively, and the errors between the simulated and natural values for annual runoff were −6.7, −4.4, −2.0, −2.6, and 10.8%, respectively. Overall, the increase in urban construction land and decrease in farming, forest area, and grassland has caused the regional flood peak and annual runoff volume to increase in the upper Hutuo River Basin.

Optimal allocation of water resources is an effective way to solve the supply and demand contradiction between water resources and water users. Recently, the rapid economic and social development of Handan has significantly increased water demand in various industries. Superimposed on the reduction of incoming water in upstream rivers and the limitation of the total amount of groundwater extraction, a large number of water sources such as South-to-North Water Diversion, Yellow River Water Diversion, and Weihe River Water Diversion are used to replace domestic and industrial water. In support of Handan’s dynamic supply and demand of water resources, the transported water was generalized as a virtual reservoir and introduced into the GWAS model. The allocation results show that the total water shortage volume and rate of Handan was 527.60 × 106 m3 and 17.92% in 2025 at a P = 50%, respectively. Water shortage was concentrated in the primary industry. The allocation results align with actual water use conditions. The allocation of transported water is more reasonable than the conventional allocation scheme, and the domestic water is completely replaced by the South-to-North Water Diversion in the eastern plain of Handan. These research results can provide a technical reference for water resource allocation in Handan.