This study investigated the effects of sediment removal on water quality and phytoplankton development by setting up mesocosms at Uiam Lake, South Korea, and analyzing the environmental parameters and phytoplankton communities between June and October 2015. The comparison between testbed without sediment removal (TB-1) and testbed after sediment removal (TB-2) gave similar values for water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and electrical conductivity. Nevertheless, the average electrical conductivities of the two testbeds were 139 μS/cm and 135 μS/cm, which were lower than the value obtained from the external control point (TB-con; 154 μS/cm). The small difference in total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations between the two testbeds implied that sediment removal did not greatly reduce nutrients; however, the phytoplankton cell count had decreased by approximately 37 % in TB-2 (average 1,663 cells/mL) compared to TB-1 (average 2,625 cells/mL). Compared to TB-con, the phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations of the two testbeds had decreased by 39 % and 30 %, respectively, whereas the phytoplankton abundance had decreased by up to 73 %, perhaps because of the blocked inflow of nutrients and the stabilized body of water caused by the installation of the mesocosm. The concentration of geosmin was lower in testbeds than in the external point, because installation of the structures had reduced the cyanobacteria biomass.