Article ID: CBB743954854

Nature Empowered: Hydraulic Models and the Engineering of Niagara Falls (January 2020)

unapi

Under a 1950 U.S.-Canada treaty the majority of the Niagara River is diverted to massive hydroelectric complexes. To hide the aesthetic impact of turning Niagara Falls into an energy waterscape, and retain tourism, the waterfall was physically reshaped and shrunk, and remedial works were built to control water flows and hydropower diversions. To achieve this, hydraulic engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Ontario Hydro relied on hydraulic models of Niagara Falls. Using an envirotech approach, I show how these physical hydraulic models were an integral part of the disguised design approach to remaking Niagara Falls, and I use this Niagara case study to critically explore the evolution of hydraulic modeling in early Cold War North America. The river and waterfall were transformed into a hybrid envirotechnical system, a submerged infrastructure that relied not only on steel and concrete, but also water, ice, and weeds.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB743954854/

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Authors & Contributors
Macfarlane, Daniel
Shinichiro Nakamura
Taikan Oki
Jennifer Bonnell
Kellison, Robert C.
Gatejel, Luminita
Concepts
Environment
Engineering
Rivers
Environmental history
Hydroelectric power
Water
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
Renaissance
21st century
20th century, late
Places
United States
Canada
Niagara Falls
Libya
Danube river
Gulf of Mexico
Institutions
United States. Army. Corps of Engineers
European Commission of the Danube
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