The effect of year-to-year variability of leaf area index on Variable Infiltration Capacity model performance and simulation of runoff

•The study assesses the impact of using year-to-year variable monthly LAI to calibrate VIC model and its performance.•VIC model efficiency can be improved by using year-to-year variable monthly LAI to calibrate the model.•Leaf area index elasticity of runoff is strongly related to catchment characteristics.•Uses of long-term mean monthly LAI in VIC model tend to underestimate simulate runoff in dry period and overestimate in wet period. This study assessed the effect of using observed monthly leaf area index (LAI) on hydrological model performance and the simulation of runoff using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrological model in the Goulburn–Broken catchment of Australia, which has heterogeneous vegetation, soil and climate zones. VIC was calibrated with both observed monthly LAI and long-term mean monthly LAI, which were derived from the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) leaf area index dataset covering the period from 1982 to 2012. The model performance under wet and dry climates for the two different LAI inputs was assessed using three criteria, the classical Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, the logarithm transformed flow Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency and the percentage bias. Finally, the deviation of the simulated monthly runoff using the observed monthly LAI from simulated runoff using long-term mean monthly LAI was computed. The VIC model predicted monthly runoff in the selected sub-catchments with model efficiencies ranging from 61.5% to 95.9% during calibration (1982–1997) and 59% to 92.4% during validation (1998–2012). Our results suggest systematic improvements, from 4% to 25% in Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, in sparsely forested sub-catchments when the VIC model was calibrated with observed monthly LAI instead of long-term mean monthly LAI. There was limited systematic improvement in tree dominated sub-catchments. The results also suggest that the model overestimation or underestimation of runoff during wet and dry periods can be reduced to 25 mm and 35 mm respectively by including the year-to-year variability of LAI in the model, thus reflecting the responses of vegetation to fluctuations in climate and other factors. Hence, the year-to-year variability in LAI should not be neglected; rather it should be included in model calibration as well as simulation of monthly water balance.