Water quantity and quality modeling of Lake Okeechobee, Florida: a systematic and critical literature review

Arias ME, Tarabih OM, Hasani SS, James RT, Kaplan DA. 2025. Water quantity and quality modeling of Lake Okeechobee, Florida: a systematic and critical literature review. Lake Reserv Manage. XXX–XXX.Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in the southeast United States. It is a critical water resource that supports South Florida’s water supply, flood control, and diverse aquatic ecosystems. Lake Okeechobee’s management is constrained by balancing in-lake storage capacity for flood protection, water quality requirements for flows to the Everglades, and increasingly deleterious discharges to Florida’s coasts. Research has improved our understanding and prediction of Lake Okeechobee’s physical, chemical, and biological properties, often with the aid of computer models. This article is an overview of scientific literature related to water quantity and quality modeling of Lake Okeechobee and its contributing watersheds. We reviewed 115 studies published since 1980. Lake water quality and nutrient load reduction from the contributing watersheds were the focus of 45 and 34 of these papers, respectively. These modeling studies improved our understanding of the Lake Okeechobee environment on several fronts. They supported field and lab research on sediment–water interactions that found internal loads were as important as external loads in affecting water quality. Models also verified the concept that sediment phosphorus settling/resuspension could be enhanced by shallow depth, flocculent mud sediments, and wind-driven waves. Additionally, modeling has improved our understanding of algae growth limitation, a dynamic multifaceted phenomenon that does not align with single-nutrient limitation typical of deeper, colder lakes. Looking ahead, current limitations and future directions for how lake modeling could support management actions include the incorporation of machine/deep learning in forecasting, along with a deeper understanding of both short- and long-term environmental changes.