Abstract: The middle route project of south-to-north water transfer has a great many controlling nodes, a complex hydraulic condition, and no regulating reservoir on its way, which brings about a great difficulty in its dispatching. High level coordination among various gates is required and some of them must be operated by real-time control of their openings according to the users' water demand schedules and the real-time water levels along the main channel. Control strategy for real-time dispatching is the key to achieving stable water transfer. This paper presents a control strategy that is based on the coupling of water flux change with water level amplitude-phase and, considers factors such as robustness of target control on water level, constraints on water level drop, and water information about the upstream and downstream channels, refining and improving the existing strategy of feedback control. The results show that this new strategy meets requirements of this water transfer project.