A canal community is a neighbourhood built around a structured

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

, such that what would be the backyard of a typical single family house is replaced with a communal waterway shared with neighbours. The canal is interconnected with additional canals so that they are all connected to a larger body of water, permitting residents to have aquatic access for

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

just as an automobile has access to a residential road network. residential property in a canal community can be much less expensive that a traditional waterfront home. However, the lack of water flow in a canal-based system can have deleterious effects on water quality due to

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination W ...

algal blooms An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompa ...

Canal communities in Ontario

Conceived in the 1960s and built in the 1970s by Hungarian engineer Andrew Zsolt, Lagoon City on Lake Simcoe is the oldest and largest canal community in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada with 16 km of canals. Located in Brechin, Ontario, it is centered on the Trent–Severn Waterway with access to

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. Further south, Young's Harbour is also situated on Lake Simcoe, in the Town of Georgina. Essex County has a number of canal communities due to its mild winter weather. It is home to: *

River Canard River Canard is a hamlet of roughly 500 people in the northern part of Amherstburg, Ontario and the southern part of Lasalle, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Canard River and is approximately 12 miles south of Windsor, Ontario. It is home to S ...

in Amherstburg and LaSalle on the Detroit River * Cedar Island in Kingsville on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

* Pike Creek and Lighthouse Cove in Lakeshore on

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...

External links

Lagoon City Community Association

References

Neighbourhoods Types of populated places {{sociology-stub