Canal

Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water. In the vernacular both are referred to as 'canals'. The main difference between them is that a navigation parallels a river and shares its drainage basin, while a canal cuts across a drainage divide.

Types of artificial waterways

A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height.

A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins.

Most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th-century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use.

Structures used in artificial waterways

Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation:

Latest News for: Discovery canal

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The UK’s surprising new surf hotspot

The Times/The Sunday Times 01 Dec 2024
Guests can stay in pods or lodges ... Lost Shore owes a good deal to a discovery made on its doorstep. It was while riding along the towpath of the nearby Union Canal in 1834 that the naval engineer John Scott Russell noticed the wave created by a canal boat — the “wave of translation” that informed his later experiments with hydrodynamics ... Travel ... ....
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Pre-Hispanic Canals Found Near Chapultepec Hill in Mexico City

Colombia One 29 Nov 2024
Archaeologists in Mexico City have found an ancient dock and canal system, revealing the importance of waterways in pre-Hispanic life ... However, the discovery of the canal and dock is an important discovery which highlights the intricate engineering and resourcefulness of pre-Hispanic societies....
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'Until I Kill You' monster John Sweeney who murdered US model and second woman should ...

The Daily Mail 29 Nov 2024
Branded the 'Scalp Hunter', Sweeney murdered and dismembered two former girlfriends before dumping their remains in canals in Rotterdam and London. Sweeney pursued US model Melissa Halstead, 33, across Europe before killing her in Amsterdam in 1990 and dumping her body in a canal ... The American model's body was found dismembered in a Dutch canal....
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Earliest Fishing Operation Found in Central America, Dating to 2,000 BC

Ancient Origins 24 Nov 2024
To verify this theory the researchers carried out a series of excavations inside the wildlife sanctuary, and their discoveries confirmed that a series of canals had indeed been dug there a long time ago, to guide and trap freshwater fish in holding ponds where they could be easily harvested....
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4,000-year-old pre-Mayan fish-trapping facility found, helped feed 15,000 people

Interesting Engineering 24 Nov 2024
First believed to have been a Mayan construction, after running numerous radiocarbon dates, archaeologists from the University of New Hampshire made an astonishing discovery that these fish-trapping canals predate the mythic and powerful ancient civilization.  ... An ingenious pre-Mayan zigzagging system of canals to trap fish....

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