Summary

Most research on downstream control of canals has dealt with the problem of selecting and calibrating a suitable algorithm which can dictate gate movements, with the objectives of achieving a rapid and stable recovery of the downstream water level in the case of any deviation of that water level from a desired target depth.  This paper addresses another equally important factor in achieving the desirable control - the influence of the canal characteristics on controllability.   This paper will not provide a simple, definitive, and universal formula to predict controllability.  However, it will present the problem, along with options which are available to examine the problem further on individual design cases.