A new predictive control method for operating water regulating gate of dams is presented based on a hydraulic model. To consider the hydrodynamic behavior of surface waves through a reservoir, the shallow water equation is used with the discretization by the finite element method. This method provides the appropriate solution of outflow discharge which prevents the overflow of dam by the operation of water gate assuming that the inflow discharge is known as a function of some moment in the future. To show the applicability of this method, one dimensional channels with single and with multiple dams and Moriyoshizan dam reservoir have been computed as the numerical examples. It is shown that the water surface elevation of a reservoir is sufficiently controlled by the present method.