Review of hydrological modelling in the Australian Alps: from rainfall-runoff to physically based models

Figures & data

Figure 1. The Murray-Darling Basin with the Australian Alps region highlighted. Major watercourses as defined by the Geoscience Australia are shown. The Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers are highlighted, as these are the two major snow affected rivers in the basin.

Figure 2. Classification scheme of hydrological models, based on model structure and spatial representation of the area (i.e. catchment) to be modelled, and snowmelt models that are included in hydrological models.

Table 1. Past hydrological modelling of snow-affected catchments on mainland Australia (excluding Tasmania).

Source	Model	Model timestep	State	Snow-affected catchments	Modelling summary
Schreider et al. (1997a)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Daily	NSW/Vic	Mitta-Mitta, Big River, Tooma River, Snowy Creek, Gibbo River, Upper Murray at Biggara	Degree-day approach is easy to apply, requiring only (daily) temperature and precipitation data. Performance of model with added snow module in snow-affected catchments similar to model without snow module in snow free catchments.
Schreider et al. (1997)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Daily	Vic	Mitta-Mitta, Kiewa River	No comparison between models.
Schreider et al. (1997c)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Daily	Vic	Mitta-Mitta, Kiewa River	During both calibration and simulation, the model performance is similar in snow-affected catchments as in snow-free catchments.
Schreider and Jakeman (2000)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Daily	NSW	Snowy River above Island Bend Pondage	No comparison between models or catchments. Calibration model efficiency (R^2) was 0.78. Validation model efficiency (R^2) was 0.61.
Schreider and Jakeman (2001)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Four-hourly	NSW/Vic	Mitta-Mitta, Big River, Tooma River, Snowy Creek, Upper Murray at Biggara	Model accuracy constant when moving from daily to sub-daily timestep. However, the model simulated diurnal fluctuations in flow, caused by temperature cycles, that were not observed in measured flow data.
Schreider et al. (2001)	IHACRES with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach	Four-hourly	Vic	Snowy Creek	Model efficiency slightly higher when the snow melt/accumulation module applied.
Tan et al. (2005)	SIMHYD with an added degree-day snow component and updated routing scheme	Daily	Vic	Upper Mitchell	Model additions (i.e. snow module and routing scheme) improved daily flow modelling.
Duggan and Garr (2006)	AWMB with addition of snow-melt-accumulation module based on modified degree-day approach (from Schreider et al. (1997c))	Daily	NSW	Tumut River above Happy Jacks Pondage	Correlation between observed and model simulated streamflow improved when the snow-melt-accumulation module was included.
Dewalle and Rango (2008, 308)	SRM	Daily	NSW	Geehi River	Six winter seasons were modelled with an average model efficiency (R^2) of 0.7 (out of 1) and percentage difference between measured and simulated runoff of 6.6%.
Burns et al. (2023)	Wapaba model with the addition of a degree-day approach (C.-Y. Xu, Seibert, and Halldin 1996)	Monthly	NSW	Snowy Mountains	Snow module was able to replicate snow dynamics well throughout snow-affected areas of south-east Australia.
Trim et al. (2023)	Modified GR4J	Monthly	NSW	Snowy Mountains	Explicit discussion of snow modelling results not included.

NSW = New South Wales; Vic = Victoria, IHACRES = Identification of unit Hydrographs and component flows from rainfall, evaporation and streamflow data; SIMHYD = simple hydrology; AWBM = Australian Water Balance Model, SRM = Snowmelt-Runoff Model, Wapaba = water partition and balance.

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