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40d:Channel
A Channel is a method of digging mostly to aid the moving of liquids, such as water and magma, from one point to another. While it is a convenient way to move liquids, it can be used for other creative purposes.
Building Channels will remove the floor of the current Z-level AND mine the walls in the Z-level below. See the digging article for a more detailed explanation.
Dwarves can not walk across a channel (as there is nothing to support them). However, you can refloor over a dug channel using b -> C -> f to allow dwarves to walk over it, while still maintaining the tunnel beneath. If you want to allow fluids to flow into a channel from above and dwarves to walk over it, you can put a grate on top of a channel, which only fluids will pass through.
In layman's terms: digging an area will carve out a tunnel in the rock to crawl through, whereas channelling an area will remove the top of the tunnel as well, creating a Trench of sorts.