Channel (geography)
In
physical geography, a
channel is the physical confine of a
river or
slough, consisting of a
bed and
banks.
See Stream bed.
A
channel is also the natural
or man-made deeper course through a
reef,
bar,
bay, or
any shallow body of water.It is especially used as a
Nautical term to mean the dredged and marked (See:
Buoy) lane of safe travel which a cognizant governmental entity
guarantees to have a minimum depth across its specified minimum width to all
vessels transiting a body of water. The term not only includes the
deep-dredged ship-navigable parts of an
estuary or river leading to
port facilities, but also to lesser channels accessing
boat port-facilities such as
marinas. When dredged channels traverse
bay mud or sandy bottoms, repeated dredging is often necessary because of the unstable subsequent movement of benthic soils.
*Which government entitity is responsible for maintaining which regions of a
navigation path to ports may vary, as does what agency actually performs the work to maintain it in navigable condition despite storms and sea-states. In the
United States, channels frequented by
ships are generally maintained by the
United States Department of the Interior, and monitored and policed by the
United States Coast Guard, despite such a channel may lead well inland to such
ports like
Saint Louis hundreds or thousands of miles inland. Lesser channels are maintained by the various states, or local governments.
See also: Ship canal.
In a larger nautical context, as a geographical place name, the term
channel is another word for
strait, which is defined as a relatively narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water. In this
nautical context, the terms
strait,
channel,
sound, and
passage are synonymous and usually interchangeable. For example, in an
archipelago, the water between
islands is typically called a
channel or
passage. The
English Channel is the strait between
England and
France.
*
Hydrology transport model
