Abstract: The traditional way of livelihood in the flood storage area is faced with many uncertainties because of the trouble of flood disaster. Taking Mengwa flood storage area of the main stream of Huaihe river as an example, this paper investigates the livelihood transformation process of local villagers through observation and in-depth interview. The results showed that in the policy, economic interest and the village people, under the joint action of local villagers in combination with special landform and ecological characteristics of retarding areas, through the water resistant crops, developing agriculture and symbiosis alternative livelihoods, has realized the ecological benefit and economic benefit and win-win, eventually formed the ecological environment and regional culture matching model of multiple formats their livelihoods.

Key words: floodplain, living way, dependence, symbiosis agricultural, sustainable