Abstract: The accuracy of areal rainfall in computational unit is important for hydrological forecasts, and the reliability of areal rainfall largely depends on the configuration of rainfall gauge network.The conventional evaluation on rainfall gauge network is mainly based on the gauge network density, lacking comprehensive criterions.To address this issue, based on the spatial distribution of rainfall estimated by CMPAS, and considering the characteristics of rainfall and underlying surface factors, a set of methods for evaluating applicability of the rainfall gauge network is proposed, which includes three aspects: the quality of the data recorded by the gauge, the distribution of the station, and the calculation accuracy of areal rainfall.Based on the proposed evaluation criterions, the existing rainfall gauge network in the Dadu River Basin is evaluated.The results show that: ① the calculation accuracy of areal rainfall of the current gauge network is affected by the combined influence of the gauge network density and the spatial distribution of rainfall.The relative error of areal rainfall calculation in 9 sub-basins is greater than 10%, of which 5 are in the downstream area.② In sub-regions of the upstream area, the overall areal rainfall is small and evenly distributed, in spite of a sparse gauge network, the calculation accuracy of areal rainfall remains relatively high; the average rainfall estimation errors in the middle and lower reaches are generally high, which is related to the large spatial variability of rainfall and the uneven distribution of the gauge network along the river valley.Compared with the conventional evaluation methods that focus on the distribution density of rain-gauge stations, criterions proposed in this paper can more comprehensively evaluate the distribution of gauge networks in the basin.