Abstract: Under the China's maritime power strategy,the island area is the frontier of marine development,and the relationship between its development potential and the change of the natural environment has attracted more and more attention. Meanwhile,an accurate assessment of the development potential of islands will help promote the deep development of islands. Therefore, this paper establishes an evaluation index system for the development potential of islands. The paper constructs obstacle factor calculation and identification methods to determine the main factors hindering the improvement of the development potential of islands. This research selects seven examples to calculate the development potential and the total obstacle degree of each subsystem from 2010 to 2017. Identify the main obstacle factors and analyze the trend of the obstacle degree. The results show that Changdao, Daishan and Shengsi,which have declining development potential need to pay attention to improving the natural environmental conditions of the islands from three aspects. Such as improving the water quality compliance rate of the sea, improving the application prospects of new energy and reducing the vulnerability of island residents’ property. Efforts will be made to improve the natural environmental conditions of the islands and formulate effective policies and measures to enhance their development potential.