1. Background Information of the Industrial Canal

The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway’s proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The more common “Industrial Canal” name is used locally, both by commercial mariners and by landside residents. The canal connects the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain. It separates New Orleans East from the rest of the city of New Orleans, and the Lower 9th Ward from the Upper 9th Ward. Approximately half of the waterway’s course, from Industrial Lock to a point north of the Florida Avenue Bridge, is confluent with both the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). The entirety of the canal passes through the 9th Ward of the city. Along the riverfront, the canal constitutes the boundary of the Upper 9th Ward’s Bywater neighborhood on the upriver side of the canal and the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood on the downriver side. Near the lake, it is generally considered to be the eastern boundary of the Gentilly neighborhood and the western boundary of New Orleans East. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, proposals have been made to close the northern end of the canal by building a dam at the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain, as part of an effort to block storm surge. A subcommittee of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission has endorsed such a move. –From Wikipedia. org 2. Concept of my systematic model Water is the carrier of New Orleans’ Industrial, commerce and immigration. As the historical maps I collected, it is evident that the culture of the city was unwrapped from the water front line. Therefore, at this stage I would like put my focus point on the water body which is regarded as the economic corridor. My model is supposed to spread from the river and the Industrial Canal. There are four layers in which I would build the model: water body-carrier (cluster of cardboard), port-industrial nodes-input (nails), railroads-pipe-transport (medal cord), and infrastructure-terminal (unknown). When all the layers are constructed together, it is the story of how the city was grew up by the input and output of the industry.

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