To response the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on accelerating the reform and development of water conservancy and promote China's transformation from a manufacturing country to a creative country, a cultivation mode of innovative water conservancy graduate students in regional universities under the context of “double first-class” construction is explored. This cultivation mode is developed based on the cultivation practice of water conservancy graduate students in the regional universities. Firstly, the problems encountered in the cultivating of water conservancy graduate students in the regional universities are investigated, including the restrictions of geographical location, social development level and fund investment, high-level talent demands from the regional social and economic development, and little interdisciplinary integration and so on. Then, based on the problems orientated and taking training top-notch talents and improving the level of scientific research under the context of “double first-class” construction as the goal, reform approaches for cultivating the innovative water conservancy graduate students in the regional universities are proposed. A cultivation mode of water conservancy graduate students based on the “four-self” education is developed, namely self-education, self-cultivation, self-innovation and self-management. Finally, the achievements achieved in the practice of these reform approaches for cultivating the water conservancy graduate students in Nanchang University are introduced. This cultivation mode is expected to provide references for cultivating the graduate students in other regional universities.