Estuarine and coastal systems are complex environments that support critical habitats, dense populations, and major economic activity. This thesis uses numerical modeling to investigate circulation and transport in two major river plume systems, the Columbia and Fraser Rivers. Model sensitivity to advection scheme selection and wind forcing was evaluated using the SELFE model within the CORIE framework and validated against observations. Results show that the Upwind Method produced more accurate plume salinity distributions than the Eulerian–Lagrangian Method. These findings highlight the importance of modeling choices for improving simulation accuracy and supporting effective coastal management.
