Abstract: Climate change leads to more extreme weather around the world, resulting in significant affects on human societies and natural ecosystems. The encounter probability of catastrophic floods in Upper Yangtze River and in Dongting Lake Basin is increasing, causing higher risks of disastrous floods. This study summarizes the literature of flood occurrence and flood control strategy in Dongting Lake Basin. Besides, the deficiencies existing in flood risk management are elaborated. The main problems in the flood control of Dongting Lake Basin are as follows: there is a gap between the flood control planning of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the actual safe discharge of the river channel and the scale of flood storage and detention area. Since the operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the long-term operation of exceeding the flood limit water level has reduced the flood discharge capacity of the river channel, and the problem of bank collapse caused by washing with clean water is prominent. The construction of flood storage and detention area has lagged behind seriously for a long time, and the safety facilities are weak. The level of informatization and intelligence of joint dispatching of water projects is not high and cannot meet the needs of comprehensive dispatching. For these reasons, it is concluded that the flood control is still a main task of development and protection of Dongting Lake Basin. In the light of the above problems, it is proposed establishing a perception layer based on point, line and area, which can timely obtain the data resources required for flood prediction, intelligently process data through cloud computing, optimize flood control resources, and a multi-dimensional flood control strategy for the Dongting Lake Basin is proposed by engineering and non-engineering means so as to achieve the purpose of disaster prevention and reduction, then lay the foundation for the realization of “forecast, early warning, rehearsal and plan”. The research serves as an important guidance and reference for the formulation of the overall flood control strategy in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Dongting Lake Basin.