Abstract: The intelligent construction of dams, characterized by safety, high quality, efficiency, economy, and environmental friendliness, is a future development trend. Appropriately evaluating the degree of intelligence in dam construction is crucial to achieving organization-level intelligent construction. However, the current stage of dam construction is in transition from digitization to intelligence, and effective evaluation methods for the intelligence degree in engineering systems are lacking. This paper outlines the system characteristics and hierarchical divisions of intelligent dam construction, based on the theory of intelligent dam construction. We discuss the basic principles of evaluating the intelligence degree and develop a new model for evaluating it, based on a general framework of dam construction. A general model application procedure is also constructed. Finally, our method is applied to projects of typical high earth-rockfill dams and concrete arch dams, and their intelligence degrees are evaluated systematically from the perspectives of execution level, coordination level, and organization level, thus lying a basis for the design of intelligent construction systems in large-scale hydro projects.

Key words: hydraulic engineering, intelligent construction, standard system, intelligent dam, engineering evaluation