Former government water expert Ian Lawrence and water quality consultant Ian Falconer said heating and cleaning a small area of water for swimming was a realistic and overdue proposal.

The possible urban beach development in West Basin is part of the ACT government's new City to the Lake project, which held an industry briefing on Wednesday.

It would feature a swimming area which, while part of Lake Burley Griffin, would be separated by a barrier and treated with chemicals like a standard swimming pool. It would also be heated, potentially using geothermal electricity.

Mr Lawrence, who until recently worked at the ACT government and the University of Canberra, said it was not only safe but also a good idea given the lake's tendency towards blue-green algae.

"In effect it is like a swimming pool, although it's immediately adjacent to the lake and has a nice aesthetic sense, in fact it's quite an independent body of water," he said.

"It's a good approach, particularly for Lake Burley Griffin, where we're seeing more and more bacteria resulting in the closure of the lake to swimming.

"By closing off part of the lake and managing it in the way proposed, the amenity of swimming is in a sense retained."

He said the idea had been discussed for some time in relation to the lake and trialling one would be a good way to test how well it performed and how popular it was with Canberrans.

Professor Falconer said the idea was similar to what had already been built in Germany, although the water in the pool would have to be watched carefully.

"It's not enough to just warm it up, they'd have to install a water treatment facility for the area ... you couldn't do the whole lake obviously, but you could enclose the area and do some effective treatment. That would be perfectly all right," he said.