Yardvaark, that makes a ton of sense and I hadn't thought of it. Thank you! I am pretty sure I have the required slope, since the house (and therefore the passageway) is 42' long and there is a difference of almost 3' in how much of the foundation is above ground at the back vs. the front of the house. I will be having the levels surveyed anyway, since the bigger project to follow this is a major adjustment in the level of the back end of my back yard to allow for vehicular access from the alley. Anyway, an open concave walk/trough seems like the lowest-possible-maintenance option. The amount of debris that ends up there is minimal, and I can see how easy it would be to sweep or hose it out as necessary. Rosiew, I've been reading all about permeable pavers and plan to use them in the back yard. We have municipal regulations now that require increasing the amount of permeable surface whenever hardscaping projects are undertaken, and part of my plan for the back yard is to deal with pooling of water on the current brick and concrete paths. I'm assuming, though, that I would *not* want to use them in the passageway by the house, because I wouldn't want water to filter down to the foundation.

perforated pipe in a trench with a slight pitch toward the back yard, covered with landscape cloth that can be penetrated by water, then covered with pea gravel, road base, or the like. right along the fence line. the rest of the concrete walk just break up and replace with new, but slope just slightly from the house (up side) out to the place where the pipe lies so water will run away from the house rather than pool and run down the sides of the foundation. you may need to do something like a French drain at the back where the water from the pipe will flow. if you don't like the look of regular concrete sidewalks you can get them molded or stamped to look like almost any surface, get them stained, imbed things in the concrete, etc. best wishes

2 inches of concrete is going to crack a lot, especially if you live in a location that has ground freezing in the winter. It is simply not thick enough.

Drainage problems can be difficult to diagnose from afar. Drainage is usually not just about what's going on in your yard, but what's going on in the surrounding properties. It's about getting water OFF of your property and moving it on to someone else's ... but in a reasonable way. For me, your pictures don't explain anything. What we need to know about is the POSSIBLE PATH for water to escape. You might start with a plan sketch, explaining what the problem is, and then add supporting pictures. Pictures should be WIDE views that INCLUDE the water's possible path of escape.