Optimal application of conceptual rainfall–runoff hydrological models in the Jinshajiang River basin, China

Abstract. For specific research areas different hydrological models have shown different characteristics. By comparing different hydrological models on the same area we should get better and more authentic results. The objective of this research study is to highlight the importance of model selection for specific research areas. For the Jinshajiang River basin, three conceptual hydrological models including the Xin’anjiang model, the Antecedent precipitation index (API) model and the Tank model are applied to select the most suitable model for flood forecasting, based on the hourly rainfall and hourly discharge data. Data were analysed by comparing the simulation outputs of the three models with the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and Correlation coefficient index. Results showed that the performance of the three models were not very different. On the basis of data need and the characteristics of the research basin, the Xin’anjiang model was selected as the optimal and practical conceptual hydrological model for the Jinshajiang River basin.