Environmental flow is a key factor to protect river ecological system, however, there is no international agreement concerned with environmental flows exclusively so far. This paper demonstrated the importance and urgency of environment water demand in the world and presented summary and analysis of environmental flows legislation and regulations. Europe and other countries have been investigated and compared systematically. At last, specialized legislative proposals were provided for protection of aquatic ecosystems and their environment in China.
Fishways play an important role in the mitigation of negative influence of hydraulic projects on fish, and can help maintain river connectivity and fish migration in river ecological systems. Based on the current situation of fishways construction in China, this paper demonstrated the legislative prospect of environmental flows, and analyzed the historical reason of depression of fishways. Focusing on adaptable measures of fishways development to legislative and ecological water requirements, four proposals were provided, which included strengthening the supervision, promoting the ecological integration, exploring the behavior of fish, and investigating the ecohydraulics of fishways.
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