Abstract Lake bank filtration (LBF) is an alternative technique of water catchment. LBF has been used by several countries for more than 100 years as pre-treatment for water supply and hydrogeological characterization studies. LBF studies are still recent and essentially focus on water quality with little or no hydrogeological approach. The benefits obtained through this technique were the reason for the implementation of a pilot project on LBF on the lake banks of the ‘lake’ at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) in the city of Viçosa (MG), southeastern Brazil. Several hydrogeological studies were carried out in this research. In this article, we highlight the study by means of three-dimensional modeling of steady-state flow to learn the characteristics of the aquifer and its interaction with the ‘lake’. The three-dimensional numerical model of steady-state flow was elaborated for interpretative and predictive purposes. The results demonstrated the potential of the LBF system and how it can be used as an alternative for the UFV campus. The exposed scenario can help groundwater management in the study area.