Eeckman J. auteur aut IRD Nepal S. auteur aut IRD Chevallier Pierre auteur aut IRD Camensuli G. auteur aut IRD Delclaux François auteur aut IRD Boone A. auteur aut IRD De Rouw Anneke auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access This paper compares the hydrological responses at the local scale of two models using different degrees of refinement to represent physical processes in sparsely instrumented mountainous Himalayan catchments. This work presents the novelty of applying, at a small spatio-temporal scale and under the same forcing conditions, a fully distributed surface scheme based on mass and energy balance equations (ISBA surface scheme), and a semi-distributed calibrated model (J2000 hydrological model). A new conceptual module coupled to the ISBA surface scheme for flow routing is presented. Two small catchments located in mid- and high- mountain environments were chosen to represent the very different climatic and physiographic characteristics of the Central Himalayas in the Everest region of eastern Nepal. The results show that both models globally represent the dynamic of the processes for evaporation, quick runoff and discharge in a similar way. The differences in the model structures and results mainly concern the snow processes and the soil processes. In particular for the high-mountain catchment, the snow-pack simulation is shown to be the main driver of the discrepancy between the two models. The sub-daily variations of snow processes are shown to significantly influence the estimation of the snow-melt contribution to discharge. specialized Central Himalayas ISBA surface scheme J2000 model Water budget at the local scale Structural uncertainty NEPAL HIMALAYA 062 020 569 705-719 2019 0022-1694 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010075186 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.12.022 0022-1694 [F B010075186] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010075186 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2019/02/010075186.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2019-03-06 2025-02-24 fdi:010075186 fre