Abstract

The categorisation of natural landscape features places a socialised and ordered lens on the landscape. In the case of natural waterways, it creates a regional hydrological vocabulary, based on physical processes and cultural history. This study uses the unique combination of hydrological and cultural characteristics found in Chile to determine the degree to which local waterway classifications of waterways as rivers (río in Spanish) provide insights into the cultural role in perceiving and describing such important landscape elements. The results indicate that waterway classification is strongly influenced by different regional cultural perspectives, which are also affected by their regional climates and specific historical processes of cartographic systematisation and nation‐making. This variety of hydrological vocabularies presents distinct zones of waterway classification throughout Chile, with implications of these differences affecting territorial planning, water management and even international relations.