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A scientific measurement of the amount of tradable water rights forms the premise for reaching an agreement in water rights trading. However, the existing measurement methods, based on water saving potential, still have problems caused by large computation workload and difficult-to-control errors. Conflicts also easily emerge between transferor and transferee during the execution of transaction agreements. This paper proposes a new method for measuring tradable water rights from the perspective of an assessment of the risk of water shortage for the transferor. The following describes the basic idea: An index system is established for the assessment of the water shortage risk of the transferor to identify water shortage risk categories. The impact of the water rights transaction volume on the transferor's water shortage risk category is analyzed under different incoming water frequencies. The transferor's water shortage risk threshold is set and a simulated annealing algorithm is designed to calculate the theoretical value of tradable water rights. The following summarizes the innovation of the proposed method: The water resource shortage risk evaluation index of the transferor is constructed based on water resource endowment, water supply, water demand, and water ecological environment of the transferor; then, a risk classification evaluation model of water resource shortage is established and a measurement method of tradable water rights is introduced. Comprehensive analysis of a case analysis of Helan County in the Ningxia Autonomous Region, China, shows that the recommended value of tradable water rights of Helan County is 40 million m3. Various methods are used to calculate the weights of evaluation indexes, which are compared to the measured results of tradable water rights; moreover, the sensitivity of the results is analyzed. The obtained results show that the use of water-saving potential to measure the amount of tradable water rights is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]