[Objective] The prior work of drought risk assessment taken Hengyang City as a typical region in Southern China was conducted to guide the consequent drought-control decision-making.[Methods] The standardized precipitation index was used to assess the drought risk in Hengyang City of Hu'nan Province in 2013. The mathematical model is built to calculate the drought vulnerability in the city by selecting indicator system.[Results] The drought risk of Hengyang City was sub-zoned as followings:extreme drought subzone includes Hengyang and Qidong Counties; severe drought subzone includes Hengdong, Hengnan, Changning and Leiyang Counties, and Hengshan County is in the moderate drought subzone. After that, eight indicators as precipitation, the degree of irrigation, and etc. were used to calculate the drought vulnerability of the paddy filed system in seven counties of Hengyang City with a mathematical method. The drought vulnerability of the paddy filed system in Hengnan County has the maximum valueas(0.627), Leiyang County has the minimum value(0.429). The counties of Hengyang, Hengnan, Changning and Qidong are highly vulnerable areas and the counties of Hengshan, Hengdong and Leiyang belong to low vulnerable areas.[Conclusion]The western counties of Hengyang City may potentially undergo more frequent and greater drought risk than the western counties when both drought risk and the vulnerability of the paddy filed system were considered.