The remaining strategy was to plant crops and live near permanent or dependable sources of water, but on landscape benches above the main floodways, so as to avoid the risk of a heavy flood washing out fields and villages, and to practice a diverse economy, exploiting ecologically diverse zones so that each settlement would be self-sufficient.

exploiting ecologically diverse zones 是什么成分？是 practice a diverse economy 的伴随状语吗？

【答】

1. exploiting ecologically diverse zones，意为“以生态环保的方式开发不同的地区”。

2. exploiting ecologically diverse zones，现在分词短语修饰动词不定式to practice a diverse economy，表示伴随或方式。