To address the shortcomings of Budyko hypothesis in its application to river basins with significant human interference, Budyko hypothesis was combined with water balance principle to quantify the contributions of changes in precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, underlying surface, and human water consumption to the observed runoff attenuation in the Xiliao River Basin and its three major tributary basins (the Laoha River, Xilamulun River, and Wulijimuren River). The results showed that the observed runoff in the Xiliao River Basin significantly decreased at 17 million m3 per year (p=0.005) from 1956 to 2020, and underwent three abrupt changes around 1966, 1984, and 2005. Change in human water consumption was the dominant factor contributing to the observed runoff attenuation in the Xiliao River Basin during this period, with a contribution rate of 77.4%, and the contribution rates of changes in potential evapotranspiration, underlying surface, and precipitation were 8.8%, 7.9%, and 5.9%, respectively. Underlying surface change played a dominant role in runoff attenuation in the Xiliao River Basin from 1984 to 2020, with a contribution rate of 58.3%, followed by precipitation change, with a contribution rate of 28.8%. The change characteristics of observed runoff and the dominant factors in each tributary basin differed greatly, but human interference played a dominant role from 1956 to 2020, with the contribution rate ranging from 78.5% to 91.7%.