Abstract: In order to make an optimized arrangement and economic development of the coalbed methane, based on the analysis on the major geological factors af fected to the development potential of the coalbed methane, the weighting obtained from the differential square and optimized combined entropy method was applied to determine the optimum weighting of the index.An evaluation model on the development potential of the coalbed methane was established.An empirical evaluation was C onducted on the coalbed methane wells in Shizhuang South Block at the south part of Qinshui Basin as a case.The results showed that the major geological factors affe cted to the development potential of the coalbed methane in the block were including the permeability, gas content, structure, hydrogeology, reservoir pressure, porosit y, depth and seam thickness.The model could reflect the features of the key evaluation indexes and could make the evaluation results more closely to the reality.The st udy showed that the model could optimize the weight percentage between the subjective evaluation and the objective evaluation, could maximally reduce the subjective factors affected to the evaluation results and could objectively and rationally explain the comparison differences between the multi indexes in order to make a reliable a nd quantitative evaluation on the development potential of the coalbed methane.