River mapping and the politics of eco-scalar fixes Reconnecting upstream–downstream networks through critical cartographies of Colombia's Bogotá River

This paper examines how river mapping practices and related scalar politics shape biased understandings and governance of Colombia's Bogotá River. Despite significant conservation efforts in the high-mountain headwater regions (páramos), the river suffers from severe downstream degradation, highlighting a disconnect between environmental policies and river health along its course. Our analysis discusses how conventional mapping primarily serves state-centric conservation of these highland ecosystems while overlooking local river/community relationships and river management in other parts. Dominant cartographic practices arrange eco-scalar fixes that naturalize particular environmental boundaries while depoliticizing river interventions. Downstream, river management shifts from state control to a model dominated by free market forces, urbanization, and industrial expansion. Alternatively, counter-mapping initiatives by community river care and grassroots collectives challenge these fixed scalar arrangements. They highlight socio-ecological connectivity and alternative river values. We ask how grassroots river mapping and the critical scrutiny of dominant cartography can inform the comprehension of river territories’ eco-scalar interactions and support upstream–downstream networks for enlivening the Bogotá River. The research demonstrates how counter-mapping processes can support rooted riverine networks that recognize the multiplicity of human-nature relationships across scales. We argue that river commoning initiatives and care actions along the Bogotá River have the potential to link upstream protection with downstream realities, fostering more integrated approaches to river governance that acknowledge social, cultural and ecological interconnections across scales.