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The Town of Hay River experiences significant threats to life and property each spring as ice jam release events from upstream bring waves of ice and water to the town. The development of a forecasting tool for ice jam release events has been limited by insufficient data, especially regarding the speed of ice runs associated with ice jam release events. The purpose of this research was to document and analyze ice jam release events to provide the town warning of their potential timing and magnitude, and to contribute to general knowledge on ice jam release. Comprehensive field programs were undertaken from 2007 to 2009, and this new data was used to assess the River1D ice jam release forecasting model. Although the model showed reasonable approximations for wave arrival times for flood forecasting purposes, the predicted speeds and arrival times of ice runs did not agree very well with field observations. / Water Resources Engineering