Bridging Knowledge Silos in Mountain Watersheds: How Disciplinary and Territorial Gaps Threaten River Governance

Sustainable watershed governance often fails not due to a lack of biophysical data, but due to fragmented social and disciplinary understandings of ecosystem services (ES). This study investigates these "knowledge silos" in the high-Andean region of Ecuador, analyzing the Yanuncay and Tomebamba river basins. Using a transdisciplinary mixed-methods design, we integrated rural and urban focus groups with surveys of university students and faculty across Biology, Engineering, Tourism, and Education. Results reveal a critical duality a critical duality: while Biology and Engineering respondents demonstrate high ecological literacy, students in Education—pivotal for future societal awareness—exhibit significant gaps in understanding ES functionality. Territorially, a sharp disconnect emerged: rural communities prioritize "survival-based" provisioning services (water supply, raw materials), whereas urban populations frame rivers primarily through "experience-based" cultural values (recreation, aesthetics). These findings expose a structural barrier to sustainability: technical solutions clash with pedagogical deficits and conflicting urban-rural priorities. It is argued that effective management requires moving beyond technical monitoring to establish a "River Basin Knowledge Council" that explicitly bridges the gap between scientific expertise, pedagogical training, and local lived experiences.