Abstract: The purpose of this article is to effectively identify and distinguish the anomaly characteristics of resistivity in the burnt-out area and in the goaf area of the coal mine in the method of the electrical resistivity tomography in the practice work.This article built a two-dimensional resistivity profile model of burnt-out area and the goaf area in different depth of coal mine This model is analyzed in the method of positive simulation and inverse calculation to achieve this research purpose. Firstly, the numerical models is built to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the Wenner device and dipole device in detecting the coal mine goaf area and burnt-out area, with the method of the electrical resistivity tomography. Secondly, the comparative analysis on the numerical simulation results is conducted to identify and distinguish the anomaly characteristics of resistivity in detecting the burnt-out area and the goaf area of the coal mine, with the method of the electrical resistivity tomography. Finally, the first derivative zero value curves of the horizontal and vertical directions were introduced and used to analyze the characteristics of the resistivity of the pseudo section. In comparison, the Wenner device has stronger recognition ability than the dipole device in horizontal anomaly circumstance, and the dipole device has stronger recognition ability in vertical anomaly circumstance than the Wenner device. The calculation of the first derivative on the resistivity pseudo section can effectively identify and distinguish various types of anomaly characteristics of the resistivity pseudo section.