This study refers to the development of a hydrologic model simulating daily inflow and release rates for irrigation reservoirs. A daily - based model is needed for adequate operation of an irrigation reservoir sufficing the water demand for paddy fields which is closely related to meteorological conditions. And the objective or this study is to develop a Daily Irrigation Reservoir Operation Model(DIROM) combining the inflow and the release models which depicts the daily water level fluctuations of an irrigation reservoir, and to evaluate the applicability of the model. DIROM was applied to four reservoirs and daily water levels were simulated and compared to the observed data. The model behaviour was also compared with that of a ten - day based model, Reservoir Operation Study(ROS) which has been applied for determining the design capacity of reservoirs. Various combinations of measured and simulated inflow and release rates for tested reservoirs were used to define the daily water level fluctuations. Simulated release rates and measured inflow data resulted in larger errors, and simulated inflow and release rates produced the smallest errors in water level comparison. Two resevoir operation models, DIROM and ROS were applied to the same reservoir and the simulation results compared. The computational errors of DIROM ware smaller than those of ROS, and DIROM was more sensitive to meteorological conditions. DIROM demonstrated its potenial applicability in water management and operation.