Buried water-conducting and water-bearing structures in front of the driving head may easily lead to water bursts in coal mines. Therefore,it is very important for the safety of production to make an accurate and timely forecast about water bursts. Based on the smoke ring effect of transient electromagnetic fields,the principle of transient electro-magnetic method used in detecting buried water-bearing structures in coal mines in advance,is discussed. Small multi-turn loop configurations used in coal mines are proposed and a field procedure of semicircular sector scanning is presented. The application of this method in one coal mine indicates that the technology has many advantages compared with others. The method is inexpensive,highly accurate and efficient. Suggestions are presented for future solutions to some remaining problems. Buried water-conducting and water-bearing structures in front of the driving head may easily lead to water bursts in coal mines. Therefore, it is very important for the safety of production to make an accurate and timely forecast about water bursts. Based on the smoke ring effect of transient electromagnetic fields, the principle of transient electro-magnetic method used in detecting buried water-bearing structures in coal mines in advance, is discussed. Small multi-turn loop configurations used in coal mines are proposed and a field procedure of The application of this method in one coal mine indicates that the technology has many advantages compared with others. The method is inexpensive, highly accurate and efficient. Suggestions are presented for future solutions to some remaining problems.