ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To develop a public health index related to the comprehensive assessment on the impact caused by floods.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) theory was used to establish the initial evaluation system on the impact of floods. Modified-Delphi process was used to screen and determine the indicators and their weights while synthetical scored method was used to establish the comprehensive assessment model. Percentile was used to differentiate the degree of floods. Finally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis were used to test the differentiability of the model for different degree of floods and the independence of these indicators.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The model of comprehensive assessment on the impact of floods was set up, including six first-ranking indicators and twenty-four sub-indicators. The values of comprehensive assessment were divided into five grades by the percentiles. Verified results indicated that there were significant difference among the five grades (F = 76.11, P < 0.01) and all indicators were independent.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>An index of comprehensive assessment on the impact of floods was established, which could be used to evaluate the impact of floods and to differentiate the degree of flood, which seemed to have the characteristic of reliability, comprehensiveness and practicability.</p>