The disparate spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall in the country and climate variation sometimes leads to rivers flooding and large flood events, which are remarkable for life and financial losses. Flood control design requires accurate knowledge of the flood generator basin, especially smaller ones, in large basins. Determining the potential of flood generation to specify the quantitative contribution of each subbasin to the downstream flood generation can be used to determine the index called the flood index of each subbasin. In this research, the effect of rainfall spatial distribution of critical rainfall on the flood potential of the Bakhtiari dam basin was analyzed using HEC-HMS model. The results showed that the effect of spatial distribution of rainfall on the flood index is significant, especially when faced with larger events with more subbasins with more area. On the other hand, the priority of participation of each subbasin in routing on the peak discharge from the basin and eventually on the flood index will be effective. Increasing the depth of rainfall in subbasins with less time of concentration has more effect on the flood index. Different spatial distributions have less effect on flood index in subbasins with the higher time of concentration and area. The results also showed that if the effect of the spatial distribution was not considered, the flood index decreases with increasing the subbasin area. Manuscript profile