The Vistre river (France) is a hardly damaged stream, affected by a combination of both chemical and hydromorphological pressures. In order to improve its global quality and its ecological functioning, 2 kinds of action were led on 2 different reaches separated by 5 km. In 2004, a 2-km-long reach was morphologically restored, including meandering work and pebbles addition. In 2008, inputs of an old wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were stopped due to the close of the WWTP whereas a new one, equipped with modern techniques and respecting the Europeans standards, was built 1 km downstream. Our objectives were to follow and compare the recovery of the aquatic ecosystem functioning after such modifications. Focusing on macroinvertebrate communities, we aim to first assess biological responses of such chemical and physical improvement and second to compare their respective responses. Invertebrates and environmental parameters were collected each September during the last 3 years on 6 sites : 1 reference site, 1 non-restored site reflecting the river before restoration works, 2 morphologically restored sites and 2 sites respectively downstream the old and the new WWTP inputs. Downstream these inputs, global water quality, macroinvertebrate richness and diversity improve rapidly in time and tend to be closest to the reference site. Even if in terms of current velocity and habitat structure, the two morphologically restored sites are very comparable to reference site, the water quality of this reach seems not good enough to observe significant recovery of macroinvertebrate community. Reference and restored sites show a higher proportion of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera taxa, diversity and richness than non-restored site. Observed modifications in the functional structure suggest that ecological traits could be useful to assess the effect of morphological restoration management. Our results suggest that chemical and physical restoration works led separately limit the biological recovery.