Abstract: Quantitative performance evaluation model is of great significance for evaluating the effect of river chief system. This paper took Jiangsu Province as the research object, and selected 17 indexes from 4 aspects (water resources protection, water pollution prevention and control, water environment management and water ecological restoration) to establish performance evaluation index model of river chief system. Data from 2007 to 2017 was used to determine the weights of indices by entropy method. This paper constructed performance evaluation index model of river chief system based on TOPSIS and used obstacle degree model to diagnose the indicators taht affect performance evaluation index. The results show that the performance of river chief system in Jiangsu Province has upward trend from 2007 to 2017, but there is a temporary downward from 2010 to 2012. The largest proportion of the indexes weight are water pollution prevention and control aspect, which also affect the performance evaluation index model most. It shows that water pollution prevention and control is not only a priority but also a difficult work for river chief system in Jiangsu Province. These results provide references for improving river chief system in Jiangsu Province and carrying out river chief system in other provinces.