Littoral zone is of great importance for lake and terrestrial ecosystems, which can ensure the surrounding ecosystem structure integrity and normal functional performance. With the continuous development and utilization, the impact of human disturbance on the littoral zone is gradually increasing. Benthic macroinvertebrates are important components of freshwater ecosystems. It is the main link between nutrient cycling, and energy flow and plays a key role in connecting the food web. In order to understand the impact of the littoral zone utilization on benthic macroinvertebrate community structure, a field survey was conducted at 49 sample sites in the littoral zone of Lake Hongze in August 2020. A total of 49 species were collected, belonging to 3 phyla, 7 classes, 17 orders, 26 families and 44 genera. The abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates at each site varied greatly, ranging from 6.67 to 1386.67 ind./m². Generally speaking, the abundances was higher along the northwestern coastline, but lower along the southeastern shoreline. The results of similarity analysis showed that there were significant differences among estuarine littoral zone, levee littoral zone and other types of the littoral zone, but there were no significant differences in benthic macroinvertebrate communities among purse seine type, circle polder type and light beach type. The results of similarity percentage analysis showed that Bellamya spp. is the main species causing the discrepancy among different littoral zone types. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that suspended solid (SS), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), pH, transparency (SD), turbidity, aquatic plant coverage and Em-5year had significant impacts on the benthic macroinvertebrate communities. When the width of the littoral zone was 200 m, the variation in the species-environment relationships was the highest, indicating that the benthic macroinvertebrates within the 200 m littoral zone of Lake Hongze were the most affected. The utilization within 200 m littoral zones should be controlled and monitored. The structural equation model shows that the littoral zone utilization mainly indirectly affects benthic macroinvertebrates by affecting aquatic plant coverage, total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, chlorophyll-a, SS and SD, and the purse seine will also directly affect the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates.