While over 90 percent of fishways are made up with concrete material, nature-like fishways are started to be established as a form of small stream using natural materials. Recently, the central government in collaboration with a university has proposed a ‘Standard Model of Nature-like Fishway’ with a purpose to provide as a national design standard of nature-like fishway.
This study aims to criticize the proposed design model of nature-like fishway and to propose improvements by examining other international cases. As a result, we found problems and limitations of the proposed design model due to the lack of research and experience about making nature-like fishway in Korea. Especially, for designing bypass nature-like fishway we found the lack of studies about structure management strategies, establishment of rocks or pebbles inside the stream, and natural materials. In this sense, more studies about nature-like fishway design adaptable to our environment need to be conducted. In addition, since the proposed design standard for nature-like fishway has been created based on the limited examination of existing domestic cases, it is desirable to improve the design standard on the basis of hydrological and biological research so that they could be adapted effectively to regional and local contexts.