Mapping the world's free-flowing rivers

Grill G 1 , Lehner B 2 , Thieme M 3 , Geenen B 4 , Tickner D 5 , Antonelli F 6 Show all authors , Babu S 7 , Borrelli P 8 , Cheng L 9 , Crochetiere H 10 , Ehalt Macedo H 11 , Filgueiras R 12 , Goichot M 13 , Higgins J 14 , Hogan Z 15 , Lip B 16 , McClain ME 17 , Meng J 18 , Mulligan M 19 , Nilsson C 20 , Olden JD 21 , Opperman JJ 3 , Petry P 22 , Reidy Liermann C 23 , Sáenz L 24 , Salinas-Rodríguez S 25 , Schelle P 26 , Schmitt RJP 27 , Snider J 10 , Tan F 11 , Tockner K 28 , Valdujo PH 29 , van Soesbergen A 19 , Zarfl C 30

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada. guenther.grill@mail.mcgill.ca
  • 2 Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada. bernhard.lehner@mcgill.ca
  • 3 WWF-US, Washington, DC, USA
  • 4 WWF-NL, Zeist, The Netherlands
  • 5 WWF-UK, Woking, UK
  • 6 WWF-Mediterranean, Rome, Italy
  • 7 WWF-India, New Delhi, India
  • 8 Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 9 WWF-China, Beijing, China
  • 10 WWF-Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 11 Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
  • 12 WWF-Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
  • 13 WWF Greater Mekong Programme, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • 14 The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Chicago, IL, USA
  • 15 Department of Biology and Global Water Center, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
  • 16 WWF-Malaysia, Sarawak, Malaysia
  • 17 Department of Water Science and Engineering, IHE Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
  • 18 WWF-Germany, Berlin, Germany
  • 19 Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK
  • 20 Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
  • 21 School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  • 22 The Nature Conservancy, Hollis, NH, USA
  • 23 UW Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
  • 24 Conservation International (CI), Arlington, VA, USA
  • 25 WWF-Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 26 WWF International, Gland, Switzerland
  • 27 Natural Capital Project, Department of Biology and the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • 28 Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, Germany
  • 29 WWF-Brazil, Brasília, Brazil
  • 30 Center for Applied Geoscience, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Nature, 2019 05;569(7755):215-221.
PMID: 31068722 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1111-9

Abstract

Free-flowing rivers (FFRs) support diverse, complex and dynamic ecosystems globally, providing important societal and economic services. Infrastructure development threatens the ecosystem processes, biodiversity and services that these rivers support. Here we assess the connectivity status of 12 million kilometres of rivers globally and identify those that remain free-flowing in their entire length. Only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length and 23 per cent flow uninterrupted to the ocean. Very long FFRs are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic and of the Amazon and Congo basins. In densely populated areas only few very long rivers remain free-flowing, such as the Irrawaddy and Salween. Dams and reservoirs and their up- and downstream propagation of fragmentation and flow regulation are the leading contributors to the loss of river connectivity. By applying a new method to quantify riverine connectivity and map FFRs, we provide a foundation for concerted global and national strategies to maintain or restore them.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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