Beauty, but at what cost? Ornamental infrastructure fragments China’s streams

Ornamental infrastructures such as decorative cascades and artificial weirs are being built in rivers across China due to increased rural revitalization and eco-tourism. Despite the goal of improving landscape aesthetics, the ecological impacts of these structures, particularly on river connectivity, may be substantial, but are currently unknown. In this study, we use Chinese social media and high-resolution satellite images to quantify the fragmenting effects caused by ornamental river infrastructure. Ornamental river infrastructure was found to be present in at least 87 sub-basins across China, and has resulted in intensive fragmentation, with an average density of 1.38 barriers per kilometer; and mean Dendritic Connectivity Index of 21.8 (95% CI: 18.1–25.4). While landscape aesthetics undoubtedly benefits local tourism, the development of ornamental river infrastructure should also seek not to jeopardize effective river connectivity that supports the very freshwater biodiversity and fisheries upon which local communities depend.