Study regions: The Xiliao River Plain. Study focus: This study proposed a technical framework for determining water consumption thresholds in semi-arid regions based on terrestrial water balance. The technical framework includes three parts: adaptability evaluation and selection of remote sensing products, calculation of agricultural and ecological water consumption, and determination of water consumption thresholds. New hydrological insights for the region: This framework could separate agricultural and ecological water consumption, and effectively determining the water consumption thresholds. During the period of 1980-2022, agricultural water consumption increased significantly (p < 0.01) at the rate of 0.67 x 10(8) m(3)/year, but ecological water consumption decreased significantly (p < 0.05) at the rate of 0.20 x 10(8) m(3)/year. According to the type of major water-consuming sectors, the Xiliao River Plain was categorized into three types of regions: regions where agricultural water consumption accounted for the majority (AR), regions where ecological water consumption accounted for the majority (ER), and regions where agricultural and ecological water consumption together accounted for the majority (AER). For all three types of regions, a significant positive linear correlation between precipitation surplus coefficient and terrestrial water storage change was detected. To maintain terrestrial water balance, the proportion of total evapotranspiration consumption to precipitation should be limited to 76.3 similar to 93.5 %. For AR, ER and AER, the proportion of major water-consuming sectors in precipitation should be controlled at 47.3 similar to 63.1 %, 49.9 similar to 62.7 % and 61.8 similar to 80.0 %, respectively.