Abstract Background Ridge and furrow rain-harvesting planting system and integrated nutrient management are crucial strategies for enhancing soil moisture and fertility in drylands. However, the synergistic impact of these approaches on soil hydrothermal environment, maize productivity, water-nitrogen productivity and soil carbon fractions has not been fully understood. A two-year field experiment were conducted in 2020 and 2021 was undertaken in Loess Plateau of China. Six treatments: (i-iii) Conventional flat planting with no nutrient management (CP), with nitrogen fertilizer (CPN), with nitrogen fertilizer and maize straw (CPSN); (iv-vi) ridge and furrow rain-harvesting planting with no nutrient management (RF), with nitrogen fertilizer (RFN), with nitrogen fertilizer and maize straw (RFSN). Results The results showed that the RF, CPN, RFN, CPSN and RFSN significantly improved soil temperature, which showed gradually increased after the seedling stage and slowly decreased at silking to maturity stage in two maize growing period. The dynamics of soil water storage (SWS) varied significantly throughout the six growing periods. The increasing of grain yield and above-ground biomass were highly influenced by ridge and furrow rain-harvesting planting system and interaction with nitrogen fertilizer and crop straw management. The grain and straw N content, plant N uptake, water productivity also similar with the rank of grain yield and above-ground followed by RFSN>CPSN>FPN>CPN>FP>CP. Furthermore, the RFSN treatment significantly increased the N uptake efficiency (NUPE), agronomy efficiency of N (AEN), and partial factor productivity of N fertilizer (PFPN) compared to RFN, with a mean increase of 29.2%, 44.5% and 7.8% in both growing years. Meanwhile, the RFSN treatment increased DOC by 51.1% (53.2%), EOC by 25.4 % (26.1%), MBC by 96.3% (80.8%), MBN by 52.6% (86.7%) in 2020 (2021), respectively. Conclusions As a result, gray relation analysis and entropy TOPSIS model evaluated that application of maize straw 1.5 t ha-1 and chemical nitrogen fertilizer of 180 kg ha-1 in ridge and furrow rainwater harvesting system (RFSN) serve as a effective method of soil management to enhance water and nitrogen utilization, potentially boosting yields and promoting resource efficiency in the arid regions of the Loess Plateau.