The paper is dealing with possibilities of application of rainfall-runoff modelling in integrated water basin management. Two physically based rainfall-runoff models with distributed parameters, WetSpa and WaSiM, were compared in the study. The models were used for estimation of the land-use changes impact on runoff regime in the upper Hron river basin, with emphasis on parameterization of land cover properties in runoff simulations. The basin was divided into a number of grid cells for which the water and energy balance were maintained and hydrological processes were simulated continuously both in time and space. Land use changes connected to forest management were expressed by several scenarios and changes in surface runoff, interflow, base flow and total runoff in the basin’s outlet were compared. Differences in simulated runoff by both models were analyzed and discussed.