Development of snow-melting system for saving groundwater

A snow-melting system using groundwater was developed in order to save groundwater. This development was consisted of the following four devices: (1) Snow on a sidewalk was melt by flowing groundwater through pipes in the pavement and then snow on the roadway was melt by sprinkling used water flowed out from exit of pipes in the side walk. (2) Precast concrete panels which contained a pipe and had high thermal conductivity were installed in the sidewalk. (3) Water was sprinkled equally on the roadway by sprinklers. (4) Snow-melting system was controlled by a snow cover sensor. Field experiments showed that those devices were effective and some calculated results agreed with facts.