To address the current problem where a large volume of water withdrawal and usage data is not collected online, leading to large statistical time intervals and untimely detection of data deviations, a real-time water resources metering data acquisition system was developed. The system employs cameras to capture real-time images of the data displayed on water withdrawal and usage meters. Through image processing and recognition, the corresponding water volume data are extracted, enabling online collection of water volume data. Based on the digital image technology, a method for locating the character area of water meters was constructed, and an adaptive template matching algorithm for water meter characters was created, improving the recognition accuracy to 97.5%. The system has been applied to the real-time acquisition of water withdrawal data from a large-scale water user in Shandong Province. A comparison with the user-reported data shows that the system has an automatic verification function, providing support for the refined management of water resources.