Hydrologic modeling is a commonly used tool to understand the rainfall-runoff processes of gauged and ungauged catchments for proper quantitative estimation of water resources availability. In the present study, an attempt is made to simulate surface runoff using a physically based semi-distributed hydrological (HEC-HMS) model for four local-scale tributary catchments of Kaohsiung area Taiwan. The input physical parameters of the model were calculated and preprocessed in HEC-GeoHMS based on digital elevation model (DEM), land use, soil and hydro-meteorological data. The model performance was satisfactory with Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) ＝ 0.51 to 0.86 and the coefficient of determination (R²) ＝ 0.63 to 0.86 during calibration (2016-2017) and validation (2018) period based on the selected loss, transform and flow routing, Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN), Soil Conservation Service Unit Hydrograph (SCS-UH) and Muskingum methods, respectively. The comparison of the observed and simulated hydrographs showed that the model is appropriate for hydrological simulations in Kaohsiung area. Therefore, the model was applied using calibrated parameters (CN and Ia) in ungauged Meinong creek catchment. The comparative results between the maximum design flow and the average simulated monsoonal flows verified that HEC-HMS model can synthesize hydrologic processes and phenomena for both wet and dry seasons. It is concluded that the developed methodology can be applied in ungauged catchments for water resources management and planning purposes under future climate scenarios that will help hydrologists to understand the efficiency and application of HEC-HMS model in rainfall-runoff modeling.