This paper provides some introductory information on the history, development, and characteristics of various lake ecosystem models. The modeling of lake ecological processes began to gain importance in the early 1960s. There are a number of models available today, with varying levels of complexity to cope with the variety of environmental problems found in lake environments, e.g. eutrophication, acidification, oxygen depletion, wetland management, heavy metal and pesticide pollution, as well as hydrodynamic problems. In particular, this paper focuses on lake eutrophication and wetland models, as well as addressing strategies appropriate for the design and development of reliable lake ecological models.