Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2016, 4, 74-81 Published Online February 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/gep http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/gep.2016.42009 How to cite this paper: Firouzi, S. and Sadeghian, M.S. (2016) Application of Snow Melt Runoff Model in a Mountainous Basin of Iran. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 4, 74-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/gep.2016.42009 Application of Snow Melt Runoff Model in a Mountainous Basin of Iran Shahrbanou Firouzi 1 , Mohamad Sadegh Sadeghian 2 1 North Khorasan Regional Water Authority, Bojnord, Iran 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran Received 11 December 2015; accepted 21 February 2016; published 24 February 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Simulation and modeling the stream flow provide major data while it is a challenge in mountain- ous basins with regard to the important role of snowmelt runoff as well as the data scarcity in these places. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the capability of an integrated applica- tion of remote sensing data and Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) to simulate scheme of daily stream flow in the snow-dominated catchment, located in the North-East region of Iran. The main para- meters of the model are Snow Cover Area (SCA), temperature and participation. Regarding to the lack of measured data, the input variable and parameters of the model are extracted or estimated based on accessible maps, satellite data and available meteorological and hydrological stations. The changes of snow-cover, as spatial-temporal data, which are the most effective variable in per- formance of SRM, are obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) eight-day composite snow cover images. The evaluation of the model application efficiency was tested by the coefficient of determination and the volume difference, which are 0.85% and −4.6% respectively. The result depicts the relative capability of SRM though it is evident that the more accurate the estimation of model parameters, the more efficient simulation results can be obtained. Keywords Mountainous Catchment, Snowmelt Runoff Model, Snow Cover Area 1. Introduction Monitoring snow distribution in mountainous basins and understanding snow processes are imperative to accu- rate stream flow simulation which is of great significance to optimal water resources management and planning. Basin-scale snowfall estimation has faced difficulties due to highly spatial and temporal variability of snow cover information and data scarcity in mountainous areas; however the progress of satellite remote sensing