At present, the demand of innovative talents in hydraulic engineering is urgently large due to rapid development of national economy and society. Thus, it is of great significance for advanced water conservancy colleges to explore effective channels to cultivate top-notch innovative talents. The successful experiences of talents cultivation of the well-known foreign universities are worth learning, but the applicability of foreign experiences to the talents cultivation in our country should be cautiously taken into account because of the mutual differences in cultural atmospheres and teaching backgrounds. A new hydraulic engineering talents cultivation channel that comprises of the disciplines collocation, interaction between teachers and students, international linkage and cooperation between universities and enterprises is presented in this paper. The proposed cultivation channel can make full use of the current teaching resources and is expected to cultivate more top-notch innovative talents for hydraulic engineering construction.