Development of a visualization platform oriented to Lake water quality targets management - A case study of Lake Taihu

•The development of a browser/server-based visualization platform oriented to lake quality target management.•Five models were integrated based on two critical functions including forward simulation and backward estimation.•The visualized platform covered the entire region of Lake Taihu and the watershed scale.

Lake Taihu is well known for its severe environmental degradation. In previous studies of lake quality target management, the water quality targets were poorly correlated with watershed pollutant reduction, and most studies lacked visualized management platform that covered all elements including lakes, in-lake estuaries, rivers and watershed regions. In this study, a browser/server-based visualization platform for lake quality target management was developed. Five models that covered both the watershed and lake scales were integrated based on two critical functions. First, the proposed method can be used to determine watershed pollutant reduction amounts based on certain lake quality target parameters, such as those for TN, TP, NH3N and COD. Second, the method can simulate the lake quality trends associated with different watershed adjustment plans. The platform was deployed by the Taihu Basin Authority (TBA) of the Ministry of Water Resources. Overall, this platform is a useful tool for watershed-lake environmental management.