Abstract: With the rapid development of urbanization, a large amount of contaminants are discharged into lakes, and break the ecological balance of the lakes. Lake aquatic ecosystem model can not only analyze the lake eutrophication, but also simulate the impacts of industrial poisons on lake aquatic ecosystem, being a useful tool of lake management. This paper analyzed the current status and tendency of lake pollution, introduced the research progress on the lake aquatic ecosystem models, and classified them based on the simulation objects and the spatial modeling capabilities. Some widely used simulation software of the aquatic ecosystem, such as AQUATOX, PAMOLARE, CAEDYM, WASP, and OOMAS were introduced, and their generation, development, characteristics, and applications were expatiated. The existing problems of the lake aquatic ecosystem models in modeling process were summarized, and the development trends of the models were predicted. Some suggestions for the selection of lake aquatic ecosystem models were proposed.