This thesis is concerned with the developments of analysis, modelling and optimization techniques and computer program algorithms, with the ultimate aim of control of water supply and distribution systems to lead to overall optimal operation. Typical system features and operational conditions are analyzed, and the requirements for the overall objective are examined, to determine an overall control strategy which is subsequently developed and tested on real systems throughout this thesis. As a prerequisite, short-term water demand forecasting is extensively studied by employing time series analysis. Special consideration is given to improving the forecasting accuracy of the method and its on-line implementation. In order to speed up the solution time of optimal system operation, simplified system models -- namely, piecewise macroscopic model and equivalent network model -- are developed respectively. Then by employing the piecewise macroscopic model, a nonlinear programming method is developed to cater for the optimal operation of a class of multi-source systems without significant storage. The optimal operation policy obtained by this method is realized at two levels: the first level calculates the optimized apportioning of water to be delivered by different sources; the second level decides the least cost pump schedules to supply the optimized apportioning of water. Based on the equivalent network model, a linear programming method is developed for optimization of a class of multi-source, multi-reservoir systems with a mixture of fixed speed pumps and variable speed and/or variable throttle pumps. This method yields directly optimized pump schedules and reservoir trajectories in terms of least cost system operation. The integration of the developments results in a scheme which can be applied to give overall dynamic control of a wide range of water supply and distribution systems. The application results presented in this thesis justify the theoretical developments and show that benefits can be obtained from these developments.