The effects of tides, wind and river discharges on the flow patterns in Bohai Sea are investigated. The Finite Element Method is used to cast the vertically integrated, long wave equations into a system of nonlinear ordinary equations in time. For simplicity we adopted linear triangular elements which are easily integrated exactly and lead to matrices of relatively small bandwidth. The system of ordinary differential equations is solved using a simple finite difference scheme.Because of the small contribution from three partial tides S2, K1 and O1, we take only the M2 tide into account. In this study the computations show Liaodong Bay in the north to be the locale of both the maximum flood and ebb strengths; tidal currents in Laizhou Bay in the south are of less importance in the tidal circulation of Bohai Sea. The discharges of four major rivers and wind speed of 7.0 m/s blowing from the north are used for examining the change in the M2 tidal current field. The simulations show that the influence of wi The effects of tides, wind and river discharges on the flow patterns in Bohai Sea are investigated. The Finite Element Method is used to cast the vertically integrated, long wave equations into a system of nonlinear ordinary equations in time. elements which are easily integrated exactly and lead to matrices of relatively small bandwidth. The system of ordinary differential equations is solved using a simple finite difference scheme.Because of the small contribution from three partial tides S2, K1 and O1, we take only the M2 In this study the computations show Liaodong Bay in the north to be the locale of both the maximum flood and ebb strengths; tidal currents in Laizhou Bay in the south are of less importance in the tidal circulation of Bohai Sea. The discharges of four major rivers and wind speed of 7.0 m / s blowing from the north are used for examining the change in the M2 tidal current field. The simulations show that t he influence of wi