In previous tests conducted by the HidroBacia hydrologic model, desequilibria in its mass balance was detected, thus showing the need for further studies for its improvement. This work consisted of improvement of the HidroBacia model by means of identification and correction of mistakes in its software source code. The mistakes were identified through adjustment during runoff hydrograph simulations using an experimental watershed data bank. The main factor, related to the mass balance desequilibria in the model, was correlated with the solution of the equations for the kinematic wave model used for propagation of the runoff hydrographs. This problem was corrected by the substitution of the linear algorithm used (Bras, 1990), by the non-linear algorithm proposed by Li et al. (1975). Starting from this modification, considered as the principal one, and other modifications made in the program, mass balance of the HidroBacia model was fitted and its simulations started to generate coherent estimates. Due to the modifications made in HidroBacia the software evolved from version 1.0 to version 1.1.
hydrologic simulation; computation; surface runoff; hydrology; hydrograph
