View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Published in :DWHU5HVRXUFHV5HVHDUFK ± which should be cited to refer to this work. provided by RERO DOC Digital Library The value of multiple data set calibration versus model complexity for improving the performance of hydrological models in mountain catchments David Finger1,2,3, Marc Vis3, Matthias Huss4, and Jan Seibert3,5 1School of Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2Icelandic Meteorological Office, Reykjavik, Iceland, 3Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 4Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 5Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden Correspondence to: D. Finger, Abstract The assessment of snow, glacier, and rainfall runoff contribution to discharge in mountain fi
[email protected] streams is of major importance for an adequate water resource management. Such contributions can be estimated via hydrological models, provided that the modeling adequately accounts for snow and glacier melt, as well as rainfall runoff. We present a multiple data set calibration approach to estimate runoff com- position using hydrological models with three levels of complexity. For this purpose, the code of the con- ceptual runoff model HBV-light was enhanced to allow calibration and validation of simulations against glacier mass balances, satellite-derived snow cover area and measured discharge. Three levels of complexity of the model were applied to glacierized catchments in Switzerland, ranging from 39 to 103 km2. The results indicate that all three observational data sets are reproduced adequately by the model, allowing an accu- rate estimation of the runoff composition in the three mountain streams.