The distant downstream proportional integral(PI) feedback control was applied to the W-M lateral canal of the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District located in central Arizona,U.S.A.Proper configuration of those controls for the ca-nal can be challenging.Towards this end,an integrated approach to the design of an automatic control system for the canal was proposed.This approach presented herein is not only a systematical review of previous work,but also represents a further ad-vance of the previous simulation study by Tsinghua University(Shang et al,2011) on relating the canal control algorithm to local PI controls for the real canal.To evaluate the control system potential,performance of the control algorithm that was ob-tained through implanting predicative module into linear quadratic regulator(LQR) was analyzed with singular value bode.Additional “manufactured” tests were conducted to compare with the control system that is currently in use.The results indi-cated that the developed control system rather than the system in current use had considerable potential to closely match dis-charge at the downstream check structures with those ordered by water users while maintaining the water level throughout the length of the canal. The following downstream integral integral (PI) feedback control was applied to the WM lateral canal of the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District located in central Arizona, US Proper configuration of those controls for the ca-nal can be challenging.Towards this end, an integrated approach to the design of an automatic control system for the canal was proposed. This approach presents not only a systematical review of previous work, but also represents a further ad-vance of the previous simulation study by Tsinghua University (Shang et al , 2011) on relating the canal control algorithm to local PI controls for the real canal. To evaluate the control system potential, performance of the control algorithm that was ob-tained through implanting predicative module into linear quadratic regulator (LQR) was analyzed with singular value bode.Additional “manufactured ” tests were conducted to compare with the control system that is currently in use the results indi-cated tha t the developed control system rather than the system in current use had considerable potential to closely match dis-charge at the downstream check structures with those ordered by water users while maintaining the water level throughout the length of the canal.