Monsoon harvests: the living legacies of rainwater harvesting systems in South India.

Rainwater harvesting, a "soft path" approach toward water management, is increasingly recognized as a key strategy toward ensuring food security and alleviating problems of water scarcity. Interestingly this "modern" approach has been in use for millennia in numerous older civilizations. This article uses India as a case study to explore the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of agricultural rainwater harvesting ponds, and evaluates the viability of these centuries-old systems under current climate and population pressures. A holistic watershed-scale approach that accounts for trade-offs in water availability and socioeconomic wellbeing is recommended for assessing the sustainability of these systems.