AbstractIn the Netherlands, flood protection has always been a key issue to protect settlements against storm surges and riverine floods. In addition, with the expected effects of climate change being more extreme, there is a need to address not only floods, but also droughts. In doing this, it is essential to adopt integrated and anticipatory techniques which are able to manage both.In our research we present the application of such an anticipatory real-time control technique for the daily management of three connected lakes, together forming a large fresh-water reservoir in the hearth of the Netherlands. The main controlled water bodies are the Lake IJssel, which is the largest lake in Western Europe, and the neighboring Lake Marker and the Lakes Veluw. The area has a vital function both in preventing floods en droughts in the Netherlands: the lakes receive water from the River IJssel and from the neighboring water systems, managed by local Regional Water Authorities (Waterboards). Lake IJssel discharges during low tide in the downstream Wadden Sea. An anticipatory approach is very beneficial for this water system in order to release water in anticipation of high inflows or reduced discharge potential due to high sea levels. During droughts, real-time control techniques support the optimal distribution of limited available fresh water.In collaboration with the National Water Authority (Rijkswaterstaat), an advisory module based on Model Predictive Control has now been implemented in the Operational Management System for Regulated Water Bodies for the Netherlands (RWsOS-IWP) and produces a daily operational advice for the management of the structures regulating the lakes. We explain how we set-up the prediction model (RTC-Tools) into the Operational System (Delft-FEWS), which real time forcing are used and how the different optimization goals are implemented. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the complex output of the advisory modules to the operators.