The gate and valve serve as the core operational components of water-saving locks, enduring complex hydrodynamic loads. Their safety and reliability directly impact the safety and efficiency of navigation. With the development of locks towards larger scales and higher water heads, the gate and valve technology has become a critical challenge and decisive factor in constructing large-scale, high-head locks. The article summarizes and analyzes the urgent technical demands posed by the construction of large-scale water-saving ship locks on gates and valves, particularly in terms of high head and large-scale development. It also highlights key challenges related to structural safety, stability, and durability, as well as intelligent and digital monitoring. It proposes future development directions in several key areas, including gate and valve types suitable for ultra-high-head water-saving locks, the integrated “gate-mechanical-electrical-hydraulic” coupling system for large-scale gates and valves, hydraulic safety assurance and resilience enhancement of valves, and field monitoring and intelligent operation and maintenance of gates and valves in water-saving ship locks.

Modern canals integrate multi-functional needs such as shipping, flood control, water supply, irrigation, ecology, and tourism. There are many challenges in construction and operation, such as out-of-balance water and sediment transport, regional water security, ecological environment protection, long-life safety of structures, and low carbon. The need for China’s modern canal construction is increasingly urgent. However, the relevant fundamental research is relatively weak. The key theories and technologies of green construction and operation have yet to be broken through, and there is an urgent need to build systematic theories for synergistic regulation of safety and low carbon during the whole life of the canal project. Based on the discussion on the 362nd Shuangqing Forum of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), this paper reviews the development history of artificial canals and the research status of modern canal engineering, puts forward the core connotation of modern canal engineering, summarizes the key technical problems faced by the green construction and operation for modern canal engineering in China, condenses the major scientific issues that need to be paid attention to and solved in the next 5-10 years for green construction and operation of modern canal engineering, and discusses the frontier research direction and the strategy of science funding in the related fields, which have important guiding significance for enabling the construction of large-scale cross-water canal projects in China.