Understanding and being able to predict fluvial processes is one of the biggest challenges for hydraulics and environmental engineers, hydrologists and other scientists interested in preserving and restoring the diverse functions of rivers. The interactions among flow, turbulence, vegetation, macroinvertebrates and other organisms, as well as the transport and retention of particulate matter, have important consequences on the ecological health of rivers. Managing rivers in an ecologically friendly way is a major component of sustainable engineering design, maintenance and restoration of ecological habitats. To address these challenges, a major focus of River Flow 2016 was to highlight the latest advances in experimental, computational and theoretical approaches that can be used to deepen our understanding and capacity to predict flow and the associated fluid-driven ecological processes, anthropogenic influences, sediment transport and morphodynamic processes. River Flow 2016 was organized under the auspices of the Committee for Fluvial Hydraulics of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). Since its first edition in 2002, the River Flow conference series has become the main international event focusing on river hydrodynamics, sediment transport, river engineering and restoration. Some of the highlights of the 8th International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics were to focus on inter-disciplinary research involving, among others, ecological and biological aspects relevant to river flows and processes and to emphasize broader themes dealing with river sustainability. River Flow 2016 contains the contributions presented during the regular sessions covering the main conference themes and the special sessions focusing on specific hot topics of river flow research, and will be of interest to academics interested in hydraulics, hydrology and environmental engineering.