The objects of study is to propose criteria for physical river disturbance assessment and as case study to show the application results for river improvement. For this purpose, the river disturbance assessment method for past disturbance process and the present-day potential natural state of stream is proposed. To assess the disturbance of the Youngcheon River caused by river improvement, One ares of Nam River was selected for the reference reach and two areas of Youngcheon River were selected for the comparison reach. And these reaches were surveyed and analyzed according to applying criteria of the river disturbances assessment. The assessment indices were physical factors as like epifaunal (bottom), embededness, velocity/depth regime, sediment deposition, channel flow status, channel alteration, frequency of riffles, bank stability, vegetative protection and riparian zone etc. The results showed that physical river environment in Youngcheon River area was disturbed by artificial revetment and bed excavation, consequently this disturbance give rise to impact of ecosystem in river. Hereafter, the criteria for river disturbance assessment are needed to consider various river characters as bed materials and bed slop etc.