Planners in the Korean capital spent two years transforming an ugly freeway into a natural creek system.

Seoul's $281 million Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project, completed in 2005, transformed a 5.6 kilometre highway into a 5.8 kilometre riverside park.

As a result, thousands of people were attracted to the park, which reduced the temperature in the area by an average 3.6 degrees.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said a similar project along Norman Creek's concrete drains could be just as successful.

Cr Newman said the council would plough $14.5 million over the next four years into the project.

First, hydrology tests and a model of how Norman Creek area area might look in the future would be prepared.

Cr Newman said that by eliminating the concrete pipes, any stormwater would flow slower and more manageably through the local area.

He said Norman Creek's concrete drain should go.

"This is the way that engineers used to do it," Cr Newman said.

"You came in, you ripped out all the trees, you lined it with concrete, because you had to get the water out, had to get the water out fast.

"There is a different view around today, where yes, you need to get the water out, but there are other ways.

"You can have retention basins where you can have storage along the length of the creek so that you have these buffers in the system and that in itself can help to prevent flooding."

Stream flooding would be reduced and better use can be made of the green space, either side of Norman Creek's concrete drain, Cr Newman said.

The 30-square kilometre Norman Creek catchment has its headwaters in the forest land around Griffith University, around Mt Gravatt, and then runs back towards Stones Corner.

Under the plan, stormwater would flow through reed and garden beds that will naturally clean the water, rather than the water flowing through concrete stormwater pipes and into the Brisbane River.

Norman Creek Catchment Co-ordinating Committee president Peter Lello said the concept had been a long-held dream for the group.

Mr Lello said Brisbane has a bad record of turning creeks into pipes and believes the project signified a new start to manage Brisbane's water courses.

"The idea is that try to remove the drain and get it back to a natural meander, getting it back to some of the similar things that happen in a natural creek," he said.

Mr Lello said Norman Creek was an important catchment because it continually attracted an 'F' rating in the annual Healthy Waterways rivers and creek ratings.

He said removing the concrete drain was just the start.

"You might develop a natural meandering creek path and put some natural bed material in," Mr Lello said.

"But then, you might have a flood-resistant type playground that kids could use in this area and the creek might go around it.

"At the minute we can't utilise the area very well, because there is this drain which runs through the middle of it."

From an engineering point of view, lowering the height of the water table itself could allow extra uses for the land.

Cr Newman said it was important to look at the various competing interests for the land.

"There's sports field, there's environmental health issues and there's the community's use of the park," he said.

Cr Newman said the eventual master plan would lay out what could happen in the area.

"Practical examples are the best way to think of it. Imagine coming back here in 10 to 15 years time and instead of this ugly concrete drain, and instead of this unusable piece of land, imagine instead that this whole area has been excavated down a level two or three metres," he said.

"Instead, we are now standing on a grassy sports field or something and the creek that is before us actually now is one side and it has a natural path, it has vegetation and there is vegetation along it.

"And there is a new bike path that is running along it."

A community reference group has been decided and met last month. An initial concept plan will be set up by mid 2011 and a draft master plan will go to local residents by 2012.

Brisbane City Council and the Norman Creek Catchment Co-ordinating Committee will continue modelling of the creek system.