Abstract: Bioassessment of benthic macroinvertebrate-based multmietrics is a very effective approach to evaluate quality of river water. Benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages were sampled at 83 sites in Shanghai metropolitan area, a typical dense river network plain. A total of 20 taxa of the benthic macroinvertebrate were collected, including 50% of Mollusca, 30% of Arthropoda and 20% of Annelida. Among 74 sites with living samples, 32 relatively clean sites and 42 polluted sites were separated based on Hilsenhoff biotic index discrminatory criteria. A comprehensive evaluation using 28 widely-used metrics was carried out. Furthermore, 8 metrics were selected as the most sensitive ones based on non-parametric tests (i.e., Mann-Whitney U test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). By standard scoring method, eight sensitive metrics were unified and integrated into a multi-metric index on a scale ranging from 8 to 40 for bioassessment at each site. Biocriteria values for benthic macroinvertebrate were proposed by quartation, i.e., 8-15, very poor; 16-23, poor; 24-31, fair; and 32-40, good. water quality of 9 sites with no living sample were marked as very poor. According to the biocriteria, 41 typical sites were divided into 5 groups. The past 5-year historical data of physico-chemical water quality indicators have significant difference among 5 group sites. Consequently, the discrminatory biocriteria are suitable for the assessment of the river water quality of the Shanghai city.