Ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin are important national strategies, and the rigid constraint of water resources is critical to high-quality development. This paper studies the high-quality development in Yellow River Basin from three paradigms: conceptual system research, water resources carrying capacity research, and economic growth research under resource constraints. The results show that the existing research focuses on the construction of high-quality development conceptual system, the coupling of water resources carrying capacity and economic growth, and economic growth under resource constraints, while no research has yet stated on the mechanism of high-quality development under the rigid constraints of water resources. On the basis of explaining the mechanism of the rigid constraint of water resources, this paper proposes three mechanisms: the mechanism of water restraint on high-quality development, the mechanism of high-quality development improving water resources carrying capacity, the mechanism of water constraint under unified security and development. This paper suggests to build the dynamic relationship between natural resource and human society, and proposed some potential research directions.