Modeling of irrigation and drainage canals for controller design

Schuurmans et al. (1995a) presented a model for the design of water level c ontrollers for irrigation and drainage canals that describes the essential characteristics of the processes relevant for canal control (such as water movements and control structures). This paper evaluates the accuracy of thi s model in two ways: (1) by comparing its frequency response with a model b ased on a finite difference approximation of the linearized St. Venant equa tions, and (2) by comparing simulation results with data from field experim ents. Using these results, we characterize the accuracy of the model and di scuss how these results can be taken into account in controller design.