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 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.
• 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.

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