Aiming at high hydraulic indexes design difficulties and large water consumption of high head and large scale shiplock,water-saving design research is carried out based on shiplock which has 40 m grade water head and 280 m×34 m lock chamber.The theoretical water-saving rate is computed and the valve operation modes are analysed.The hydraulic indexes are calculated through mathematical model for water-saving shiplock.The results show that the theoretical water-saving rate of the shiplock with three-step storage basins proposed in this paper can reach to 60% and the maximum hydraulic indexes can reduce by 18%～43% compared with general layout.The water-saving layout can simplify the hydraulic system design.