Abstract: The construction of modern inter-basin canal projects is an essential component of China’s future high-grade waterway network, aiming to enhance interconnectivity, improve quality, and expand capacity. Such projects will play a significant role in reducing transportation costs and promoting economic development. Modern canal engineering encompasses a series of complex scientific issues, including territorial spatial planning, water resource allocation, and coordinated industrial development, among which the regulation of hydraulic safety for navigation is crucial to ensuring the security of both canal structures and vessel operations. By reviewing global experiences in modern canal construction and considering the specific characteristics of China’s inter-basin canal projects, several urgent areas of technological research and development are identified: (1) Development strategies and resource optimization technologies for canal engineering; (2) Safety and efficiency assurance technologies for navigation structures crossing watershed divides; (3) Low-carbon and green construction techniques coupled with efficient whole-process management and control; and (4) Intelligent operation and maintenance systems for canal engineering. These priorities illustrate the major scientific and technological demands of modern canal engineering in the areas of strategic development, resource optimization, safe and efficient cross-watershed navigation, green low-carbon construction, and intelligent operation and maintenance. Furthermore, key technical challenges are highlighted in regulating the hydraulic safety of water-saving locks, which serve as critical control structures in modern canal systems. These challenges include: hydraulic design and overall layout for locks with large water-level variations; mechanisms and control technologies governing the spatiotemporal evolution of energy transfer within lock chamber-water-saving pool systems; vibration suppression and cavitation prevention in rapidly operated filling and emptying valves; and the mechanisms of wave-current interactions affecting navigation safety under unsteady lock flow conditions, together with early warning technologies. Overall, the study provides important insights and technical references for the planning and design of modern canal projects, the high-quality development of inland water transport, and the construction of an advanced high-grade waterway network.