Process diagnostics of snowmelt runoff in global hydrological and land surface models – Part 1: A systematic evaluation across basins of increasing complexity

Lei, Xiangyong; Lin, Haomei; Zheng, Kaihao; Lin, Peirong

doi:10.5194/hess-30-5343-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5343-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5343-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 16

Research article

|

21 Aug 2026

Research article |

| 21 Aug 2026

Process diagnostics of snowmelt runoff in global hydrological and land surface models – Part 1: A systematic evaluation across basins of increasing complexity

Xiangyong Lei, Haomei Lin, Kaihao Zheng, and Peirong Lin

Data sets

Global Reconstruction of Naturalized River Discharge at 2.94 Million River Reaches (GRADES) P. Lin et al. https://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.272898

Global River Discharge Reanalysis dataset (GRDR) D. Feng and C. Gleason https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13951712

A Synthesis of Global Streamflow characteristics, Hydrometeorology, and catchment Attributes (GSHA) for Large Sample River-Centric Studies V1.1 Z. Yin et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10433905

Short summary

Snowmelt runoff is a critical freshwater resource. This study assesses how well 15 large-scale models and runoff products simulate its volume, peak, and timing across 1455 snow-dominated basins, with special attention to model performance in increasingly complex basin environments. Our results reveal common biases and identify model types with relative strengths, providing guidance for water-resource planning and sustainable water management under global warming.