Abstract: According to the water disaster prediction problems in the mine construction and mine production, based on "the smoke circle effect" theory of the transi ent electromagnetic method, the overlapping return line device was applied to survey the hidden water bearing (flow) structures in the front of the gateway driving face and in the roof and floor of the coal mining face and to study the design of the measuring point layout and the survey direction.The results showed that at the turning Co rner locations of the two side walls in the gateway driving face, the survey could be conducted on the same survey direction with the gateway driving direction in 30°，4 5° and 60° .Thus the blind area existed in the conventional gateway driving method could be eliminated during the pilot survey and the space positioning in the abnormal zone would be favorable.During the roof and floor survey of the coal mining face, at the survey direction of the same measuring point, the detection could be conducted on the 45° of seam to the roof and to floor, the water structure developed in the detection scope could be best coupled with the work device and the signal and noise rat io could be improved.