A combined watershed and receiving waterbody model was developed for operational water flow forecasting of the Nakdong river. The Hydrological Simulation Program Fortran (HSPF) was used for simulating the flow rates at major tributaries. To simulate the flow dynamics in the main stream, a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, EFDC was used with the inputs derived from the HSPF simulation. The combined models were calibrated and verified using the data measured under different hydrometeological and hydraulic conditions. The model results were generally in good agreement with the field measurements in both calibration and verification. The 7-days forecasting performance of water flows in the Nakdong river was satisfying compared with model calibration results. The forecasting results suggested that the water flow forecasting errors were primarily attributed to the uncertainties of the models, numerical weather prediction, and water release at the hydraulic structures such as upstream dams and weirs. From the results, it is concluded that the combined watershed-waterbody model could successfully simulate the water flows in the Nakdong river. Also, it is suggested that integrating real-time data and information of dam/weir operation plans into model simulation would be essential to improve forecasting reliability.