Abstract: Taking the small and medium-sized watersheds in the eastern Liaoning Province as examples, we analyzed and compared the applicability of hydrological models based on runoff generation and confluence mechanism, then established an indicator system for watershed hydrological model identification considering climate characteristics, underlying surface conditions and human activities. The climate characteristics of the study area were analyzed. The basin area/main channel length, channel gradient, forest coverage, topographic index and climate type were determined as input indicators for watershed hydrological model identification by Principal Component Analysis Method. Then, we identified the applicability of XAJ model, DHF model and TOPMODEL for flood simulation in each study basin. The flood simulation results show that the established hydrological model identification index system is representative and the identified hydrological model could well reflect the watershed runoff generation and confluence characteristics.