Abstract: Hydraulic efficiency evaluation methods can be used to mark and rank all kinds of large-scale hydraulic samples along the pipeline so that maintenance, repair and investment allocation can be conducted targetedly. However, the practice and field application in recent ten years show that traditional hydraulic efficiency evaluation methods have disadvantages.In this paper, the basic theory and operation mode of hydraulic efficiency evaluation were introduced. Then a hydraulic efficiency evaluation method based on analytic hierarchy process was proposed according to different actual hydraulic characteristics. Finally, based on a case study, the field application results were analyzed and demonstrated. It is indicated that by virtue of the optimized evaluation based on different hydraulic characteristics, the evaluation levels can be refined and the investment can be more specific. The research results provide the guidance for improving the safety performance of pipelines.