Worldwide floodplain rivers are highly imperiled but remain one of the most productive ecosystems in ‎the world because of supplementary nutrients associated with landscape inundation.   Anthropogenic ‎disturbance in the form of dam construction, levee creation, and channelization, coupled with ‎landscape development for agriculture and urban development, have altered natural processes and ‎interactions between mainstem rivers and the associated low lying floodplains. These modifications ‎have negatively influenced native biota and ecosystem functioning that may depend on the mosaic of ‎lentic and lotic floodplain habitats. Specifically, many river fishes exhibit migratory patterns and have ‎developed life-history traits to exploit seasonally predictable flood pulses that inundate floodplains. In ‎addition, floodplain resident fishes contribute massively to food production and biodiversity. Despite ‎studies demonstrating the relative benefits of floodplain connectivity to river fishes and the ‎importance of floodplain fisheries to food security and livelihoods, socioeconomic demand and ‎political regulatory restrictions limit floodplain connection availability to fishes and consequent ‎productivity of these systems.  Our intent with this symposium is to provide a forum for scientists ‎throughout the world to provide case-study examples of the relative benefits of floodplain inundation ‎to fish and fisheries in the presence of the aforementioned political and development constraints. ‎