The relationship between the number of benthic macroinvertebrate species and the accumulated survey area were investigated in a clean stream and an impaired stream of Korea. Five models to characterize species-area functions were compared, and the Weibull model fitted species-area data well. The other models (Arrhenius, Romell-Gleason, Kylin, Lognormal model) had small or notable bias. The maximum number of species and half-saturation area derived from the Weibull model may be used as the indicators of the carrying capacity and the habitat complexity respectively.