This thesis investigates the impact of climatic, tectonic, and sea-level changes (external forcing) on river systems (source-to-sink) and how these changes are recorded in the stratigraphic record. It describes a newly developed numerical tool (PaCMod) to simulate the complex fluvial system sediment flux response to external forcing on a geological time scale. Numerical modelling simulations, combined with field data indicated that the late Quaternary evolution of the Golo River system (France) was controlled by a complex interaction of sea-level and climatic forcing. Stratigraphic analysis in the Panther Tongue delta (Utah) showed how different parts of an ancient shoreline reacted differently to the same changes in external forcing, which consequently, have a different stratigraphic expression along depositional strike.