Engineering the North American waterscape: The high modernist mapping of continental water transfer projects

Abstract

Starting in the late 1950s, at least fifteen separate proposals to radically alter the North American waterscape emerged. These proposals typically sought to bring water from northern regions (especially in Canada) to southern ones in the United States and Mexico through canal construction, the massive alteration of river flow, and (in some cases) nuclear excavation. This study analyzes the cartographic strategies used in support of re-engineering the continent’s water flow. The project maps promoted a specific political agenda that sought to redistribute North America's water resources by transcending political boundaries and physical barriers. Furthermore, conventions of cartographic representation, particularly the need for generalization and simplification, worked to reinforce and heighten the original modernist, engineering ethos. This led to representations that de-emphasized political communities and boundaries, that both assumed and hid nuclear technology, and that ultimately removed water from the natural environment by treating it as a purely abstract resource.