Feed-Forward River Flow Control Using Differential Flatness

The rarefaction of global water resources is a motivation for research on automation of management of water distribution systems. Large amounts of fresh water are lost due to poor management of open-channel systems. This article focuses on the management of such canals which are used to convey water from the resource (generally a dam located upstream) to a specific downstream location. Due to the fluctuations of water needs, water demand changes with time. This change in demand calls for the efficient operation of the open-channel systems to avoid overflows and to supply desired flow rates at pre-specified time instants.