Hydrological simulation in ungauged catchments has been singled out as one of the major challenges in the hydrological sciences.In this study, a Distributed Time Variant Gain Model (DTVGM) was applied to the 30 sub-catchments in the Jinsha River basin, headwater of the Yangtze River for the purposes of testing the applicability of the model in the headwater region of the Yangtze River, examining the possibility of relating the model parameter values to the physical properties of the catchment, and assessing the effect of land use changes on the runoffyield.