Human influences increasingly modify the fluvial dynamics while the value of the clear drinking water worldwide increases. Water demand escalates as the population grows and as the engineering technology evolves. However the near-river inhabitants perceives the less sustainable water management concepts, from extreme floods through decrease of river recreation sites and termination of oxbow-lakes, the near-natural dynamics of the river has been forgotten. The aim of our study was to explore the near-natural river dynamics comparing with the current conditions and to examine its sustainability. The river landscape system in near-natural circumstances was highly related to the predictable fluvial disturbances, which sustained both the lateral and the vertical connectivity of the river branch system. During floods the main channel was able to refresh the habitats of the side-arms and the backwaters. The ebb and flow of the river was unhindered through channels, which were established to lead away the floods rolling back the level of it, and to collect the residual waters of the ebb. River regulation of the late 19^th century and the construction of the Slovakian hydropower dam system in the late 20^th century extremely changed the physical framework conditions of the upper part of the Danube in Hungary. The study analyses the effect of human impacts on the aquatic habitats, through the spatio-temporal changes of the aquatic habitats. It was hypothesized, that based on historical maps we can make difference between the natural and human induced river dynamics patterns which can help to project the potential effects of the river renaturalization and the construction of water reservoirs on aquatic habitats.