Hydrological model development for the purposes of assessing future climate change impacts and operational flow forecasting has been identified as a high priority in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Extreme flooding and drought conditions have occurred over the last five years, resulting in multiple evacuations, damage to infrastructure, and the cancellation of barge services to provide essential goods and services to communities. Many communities at risk of flooding in the NWT are along the Mackenzie River or its tributaries. Operational flow forecasting at the basin scale requires a physically based hydrological model which allows for iterative model development, parameterization and calibration for embedded sub-basins and landscape types. This study will contribute to the development of a Mackenzie basin scale model through data collection and model development across different landscape types and hydrological response units in the NWT. The project targets two basins where either prior hydrological models do not represent the basin well or where no hydrological model development has been initiated. This study will develop hydrological models for two basins (Yamba and Trout) of similar size but contrasting land cover and permafrost conditions. Both basins have existing data and research infrastructure and interest from local Indigenous governments. Here, we present the existing datasets, basin discretization, and preliminary calibration and validation runs for the Yamba River basin using the Raven hydrological modelling framework. Discrepancies between measured and modelled flows point to data collection needs to understand which hydrological processes are not yet being well represented in the basin.