Aboat is headed with a velocity of 18 meters/second toward the west with respect to the water in a river. if the river is flowing with a velocity of 2.5 meters/second in the same direction as the boat. what would be the magnitude of the boat’s velocity?

If the boat's velocity is 18m/sec relative to the water in the river and not the shore, it would need to be added the river speed of 2.5m/sec to get a total of 20.5m/sec. The 20.5m/sec would then be the total velocity of the boat relative to the shore. From personal experience, I know that when one runs with the tide, one is adding the tide flow speed to one's boat speed (what it would be in neutral waters) to get a sometimes much faster speed.