Based on hourly precipitation data of 30 automatic weather stations in Shanghai during 2007-2016 and 110 alert phone calls from the Shanghai Emergency Linkage Platform, the distribution characteristics of rainstorm and waterlogging disaster in Shanghai in the past ten years were analyzed using the methods of statistics and GIS, and the relationship between disastrous rainstorm processes and waterlogging disaster were further studied. The results indicate that: 1) The spatial distribution of rainstorm days in Shanghai reflected the urban rainisland effect, and extreme hourly rainfall intensity was relatively prone to occur on the eastern coast where the vapor is abundant and in the central urban districts where the level of urbanization is high. 2) The annual variation of waterlogging disasters was big. The monthly distribution curve of waterlogging disasters showed a single peak, and the daily distribution was double peaks. Waterlogging disasters are densely concentrated in the central urban region and the centers of districts, which reflecting the spatial characteristics of the disaster bearing body. 3) The rainstorm process had a significant contribution to the waterlogging disasters. The number of waterlogging disasters was significantly related to the process rainfall, maximum hourly rainfall and maximum hourly rainfall intensity and was less related to the duration and the affected stations. 4) When the maximum hourly rainfall was equal to the process rainfall and the process rainfall was less than 60 mm, the number of waterlogging disasters was less than 20, however, the waterlogging disasters increased dramatically as the process rainfall increased gradually, especially when the process rainfall exceeded 100 mm. This study on the relationship between rainstorm characteristics and waterlogging disaster is of great significance for disaster forecasting, warning and service.