canalization

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or an instance of canalizing.
• noun A system of canals.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In neurology, figuratively, the formation or opening of a path of nervous conduction or nervous discharge.
• noun In surgery, drainage by means of artificially formed channels without the insertion of tubes.
• noun The construction of canals, or the establishment of communication by means of canals.
• noun Specifically The conversion of a natural stream or a chain of lakes or marshes into a continuous canal, suitable for navigation, by means of weirs, barrages, locks, short cuttings, etc, Canalized rivers are common in France; in the United States the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers afford instances. The Suez canal is in part the result of the canalization of natural bodies of water. Also spelled canalisation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun rare Construction of, or furnishing with, a canal or canals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Alternative spelling of canalisation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun management through specified channels of communication
• noun the production of a canal or a conversion to canals