With ongoing population growth and increasing urbanisation the pressure on urban water bodies increases. In 2015 four billion people, more than half of the world’s population, lived in cities. The task to provide them with safe drinking water is massive. In case of severe pollution the production of drinking water using surface water can be risky and expensive. The preferred raw water source is therefore groundwater. But groundwater resources are often scarce; groundwater depletion is increasing every year with consequences like salt water intrusion, soil surface subsidies and loss of wetlands. Many methods therefore exist to recharge the groundwater aquifer, each of them with advantages and disadvantages. One of the techniques is induced bank filtration (IBF), used worldwide for more than a century. When installing and operating groundwater wells close to a surface water body, the groundwater level drops below the surface water level and infiltration is induced. The water passage through the sediment and the subsurface provides a cost-efficient pre-treatment step for drinking water production. IBF is therefore widespread and expected to increase in the future. Existing research has focussed on the purification efficiency and abstraction capacity of IBF, while no studies investigated the ecological effects of IBF on surface water bodies. The aim of this thesis was to analyse the potential effects of IBF on surface water bodies, primarily lakes, by (1) developing a concept based on an extensive literature review, (2) a modelling study testing different scenarios of IBF effects on shallow lake ecosystems and (3) a field and laboratory study of the sediment quality in an urban lake affected by IBF and its effects on benthic primary producers. The model study was performed using the shallow lake ecosystem model PCLake and investigated the effects of IBF by focussing on five mechanisms: 1) Loss of CO2 inflow via groundwater, 2) Loss of nutrient inflow via groundwater, 3) Increase in seasonal temperature variation, 4) Increase in sedimentation rate and 5) Increase in sediment oxygen penetration depth. In addition, the impact of lake size and depth on the effect size was investigated. For the field and laboratory study sediment cores were collected from the urban Lake Müggelsee, at six locations with expected high impact of IBF and six locations with expected low impact of IBF. The sediments were analysed for grainsize distribution, organic matter content, phosphorus availability, total phosphorus and heavy metals. They were also used in a growth experiment to study if changes to the sediment characteristics by IBF would affect the growth of periphyton and submerged macrophytes. Numerous potential effects of IBF, categorized into physical, chemical and biological effects, were identified from available literature. Effects on very large rivers were thought to be small or negligible while effects on lakes and slow flowing lowland rivers were expected to be potentially adverse. By interrupting the groundwater seepage, IBF would at the same time interrupt CO2 and nutrient inflow via groundwater, increase seasonal temperature variation and the retention times in lakes. In extreme cases, extensive pumping could significantly lower lake water tables and streamflow. Many of the potential effects identified during the literature study could be tested in the modelling study. The results showed that the impact of IBF on shallow lake ecosystems was mainly caused by interrupting groundwater seepage. Increased summer water temperatures promoted cyanobacteria blooms and the loss of CO2 inflow via groundwater reduced macrophyte growth and promoted turbid states in lakes. This was true for most of the tested scenarios. In a few cases, when in the initial state groundwater CO2 concentrations were low and nutrient concentrations were high, IBF interrupted nutrient loading via groundwater, reduced phytoplankton growth and promoted a clear-water state. The net effect of IBF impact on sedimentation rate and oxygen penetration depth resulted in higher phosphorus binding in the sediment, but the effect was small. The field and laboratory study revealed that sediments from locations with a high impact of IBF had higher phosphorus availability and iron content. Submerged macrophytes grew slower in those sediments while no significant difference in periphyton growth could be observed. It can be concluded that IBF can have significant effects on lake ecosystems that need to be taken into account when applying the technique. The thesis helps to identify which water bodies are suitable for IBF and when alternatives should be considered. One such alternative is aquifer storage transfer and recovery that has the ability to provide groundwater recharge for drinking water production while still maintaining groundwater seepage into water bodies. Future research should expand to effects of IBF on rivers and deep lakes, and empirical studies should include effects of the loss of CO2 inflow in littoral zones and changing redox conditions in littoral sediments. Ultimately, this knowledge will ensure a sustainable use of IBF, economically as well as ecologically.