A framework for the sustainable maintenance of permanent runoff management structures in rainfed agriculture under climate change

Rainfed agriculture supports a significant share of global food production, balancing water storage with competing demands through runoff management. Human interventions to manage runoff range from temporary practices (e.g., tillage adjustments, crop residue retention) to permanent structures such as terraces and ditches. While practices are adaptable, structures are less flexible but critical for climate resilience. Their life-cycle comprises design/construction, maintenance, abandonment/destruction, and rehabilitation. Despite extensive research on design, rehabilitation, and abandonment, the description, understanding, and impact of maintenance practices remain understudied. This paper addresses this gap through a configurative review (1954-2024), integrating scattered knowledge. We show that rainfall variability, driven by climate change, accelerates biophysical degradation (e.g., terrace deformation, ditch occlusion), requiring adaptation and knowledge sharing to ensure structural stability and hydrological connectivity. Results highlight how regional inconsistencies in structure names hinder cross-regional comparisons and research consolidation. Our contributions include a framework for standardizing: (1) a context-specific evaluation of maintenance practices and (2) an assessment of runoff management structure efficiency under climate change. By integrating biophysical durability, socioeconomic feasibility, and adaptive governance, this framework provides stakeholders and academic actors with a common basis for systematically evaluating and improving runoff management. In practice, we urge policymakers and practitioners to adopt proactive, climate-adaptive maintenance, and to incentivize local community involvement for hybridizing traditional knowledge and technical innovation. By integrating maintenance into farming system design and management, these structures may effectively mitigate the impacts of an increasingly unpredictable climate, ensuring long-term resilience and sustainability in rainfed agriculture.