Diverting the water through pipes will definitely cause significant ecological change. Nature minus humans endlessly causes the same sort of change, but to sec

Diverting the water through pipes will definitely cause significant ecological change. Nature minus humans endlessly causes the same sort of change, but to second an earlier comment this would be a nightmare to try to do in a lot of areas. In my area the most dire thing to touch is the flow of water -- with three layers of government/protection agencies monitoring it with a very close eye.