Abstract: The ponding in the upper goaf with small layer spacing is an important factor affecting the safe recovery of the lower group of coal, not releasing the ponding in the upper goaf will cause significant hidden danger to the future workings recovery, but cannot blindly arrange drilling holes for releasing. Therefore, the exploration of the extent of ponding in the upper goaf will be of great importance to the next step of water release. In this paper, a combination of mine transient electromagnetic method and radio wave penetration method are used to explore the water accumulation in the upper goaf after a comparative analysis of surface and mine physical surveys and multiple mine physical survey methods. The research results show that through field data collection, data processing, data interpretation and comprehensive analysis, the ponding in the overlying goaf can be circled, thus providing a good geological basis for the placement of water release boreholes and proving the accuracy and effectiveness of the selected method.