Abstract: In coal mines in regions of northern China,especially at eastern and sourthern side-hills of Taihang mountain,water bursts often occur because the bed bottoms of mines there are usually constituted by Ordovician limestone which can be easily eroded by underground water.The traditional methods for forecasting water burst become insuffient in effectiveness.Based on anlysis of geohydrological conditions,water burst factors and water burst mechanism,a GIS-based water burst forecasting model has been established which brings good results in the practice.