Teaching hydrological modeling with a user-friendly catchment-runoff-model software package

Computer models, and especially conceptual models, are frequently used for catchment hydrology studies. Teaching hydrological modeling, however, is challenging as students, when learning to apply computer models, have both to understand general model concepts and to be able to use particular computer programs. Here we present a new version of the HBV model. This software provides a user-friendly version which is especially useful for education. Different functionalities like an automatic calibration using a genetic algorithm or a Monte Carlo approach as well as the possibility to perform batch runs with predefined model parameters make the software also interesting for teaching in more advanced classes and research projects. Different teaching goals related to hydrological modeling are discussed and a series of exercises is suggested to reach these goals.