Coastal waters have always been important for society because of their effective role in transportation and water supply, while being used as a means of disposal of treated or untreated wastewater. They also provide eco-system resources of immense significance to the challenges of climate change etc. During recent decades many scientists and engineers have been involved in hydro-environmental modelling and monitoring research projects as a result of the increasing general awareness of need to manage our aquatic systems more carefully and the growing public concern about environmental and ecological pollution of coastal basins. In particular, over the past decade there has been a growing interest in the hydro-ecology of the Arabian Gulf, including concerns about increasing salinity, temperature and nutrients levels. These concerns have been principally associated with the rising expansion of desalination plants in the region and the rapid growth in waterfront developments and increasing sewage discharges etc. Two three-dimensional numerical hydro-environmental model, namely TRIVAST (ThRee-dimensional layer Integrated Velocities And Solute Transport) and ELCOM (Estuary, Lake and Coastal Ocean Model), coupled with CAEDYM (Computational Aquatic Ecosystem Dynamics Model), have been set up and compared in simulating the hydrodynamic and water quality processes in the whole of the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf. Comparisons between both model results and the governing equations have been analysed which, in turn, have led to variations in most modelled parameters. These comparisons and their consequences are discussed in this paper.
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