Flow regime changes caused by existing hydraulic infrastructure (e.g., dams, and diversion weirs are evident in all continents of the earth, resulting in irreversible negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems (Nilsson et al., 2005). Over 58,000 large dams and 880,000 small dams are estimated to exist worldwide (J. Wang et al., 2021). The Yangtze River of China is the third longest and most water-rich river system in the world. It is also one of the rivers with the most abundant biodiversity in the world (Huang et al., 2016). However, over 50,000 dams have been built in the Yangtze basin (B. Y. Li et al., 2021). In particular, the huge Three Gorges Dam (TGD), built on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, has tremendous effects on riverine ecosystems in multiple ways, such as the drowning of the channel and riparian habitats within the impounded zone, the alteration of the hydrology and the thermal regime in downstream regions (B. Y. Li et al., 2021). Recently, the biological integrity of the Yangtze River has been degraded dramatically, prompting the Chinese government to issue the Yangtze River protection law for implementing remedial measures to restore the biodiversity of the Yangtze River. These conservation measures include sewage interception, forbidding sand dredging, and banning fishing (Han et al., 2021). Even so, improvement of the ecosystem remains at a limited scale as compared to the tremendous impact caused by the TGD. The optimal ecologically-friendly operation strategy of the TGD reservoir is critically needed for the restoration of the aquatic ecosystem in the Yangtze River (K. B. Chen et al., 2018).Recent research efforts have provided insight into how dams might be strategically operated to partially restore lost ecosystem functions and services (Owusu et al., 2020). The concept of environmental flows (EFs) has been