A control model for the mouth of the River Murray, South Australia

The River Murray drains one-seventh of the Australian continent, but in 199 1 the mouth closed for three months. The last 1000 km of the river system i s controlled by weirs and barrages, and consequently it is feasible to use river flow to control the size of the river mouth. This paper demonstrates how recursive estimation techniques have been applied to the historical tim e series of monthly flows, tide levels, wind speeds and directions, and sal inity levels in the estuarine lake, to produce a strategy for the opening o f the barrages that will control the size of the mouth while maintaining ac ceptable levels of lake salinity.