A TIN, Triagulated Irregular Network, based topographic modeling method and a distributed rainfall-runoff model using the topographic representation is presented. In the TIN based topographic representation, a watershed basin is modeled as a set of contiguous non-overlapping triagular facets : the watershed basin is subdivided according to streamlines to deal with water movement one-dimensionally ; and each partitioned catchment is approximated to a slope element having a quasi-three-dimensional shape by using cubic spline functions. On an approximated slope element, water movement is represented by combined surface-subsurface kinematic wave equations considering a change of slope gradient and slope width. By using the distributed rainfall-runoff model, the effects of spatial variability of soil properties on runoff response are examined.