@Pan_Nymira thank you for your suggestion about the canal. I like the idea of using EA terrain paint for the wall. These old canals are lined usully with brick and it is often that which needs to be renewed when they are rennovated. I need to investigate how to extract the terrain paint as I do not want to use anything classed as cc in this build. If I do go that route there is a cc canal kit to investigate which includes a lock that might take out a lot of fiddling about. At the moment though I am just putting down lot markers and placing roads. Plenty of time before I get to terrain sculpting :)
I hope your revision is going well. I remember my degree finals as a blur of eat, library, lectures, revision and lots and lots of coffee. Still it worked. I am sure you are a lot more methodical and you will get the results you want :)