Conventionally, in cold regions covered with snow in winter, it was difficult to secure safe sidewalk spaces for pedestrians due to the piles of snow removed from roadways and the roofs of private houses and heaped by the side of the road. The sidewalk snow melting systems currently in use consist of the same sprinkling method, electric heater method and hot water pipe method used to melt snow from roadways. These conventional systems pose problems such as low service level due to puddles formed on sidewalks, high running costs, and the difficulty of securing installation space in urban areas. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and local governments are moving to provide snow melting systems in order to secure sidewalk spaces in city centres, around public institutions and so on, in accordance with "Transportation Barrier-Free Law" (enacted in May 2000). Furthermore, while moving to reduce the total cost of the snow melting systems, these entities are actively working to develop snow melting systems that effectively utilize non-conventional energy and natural energy. To respond to these needs, the authors, utilizing the sheet steel hot water panels that were successfully used on railways in 1992, began developing a hot water panel snow melting system for sidewalks that employed non-conventional energy in the form of low-temperature heat sources such as sewage heat and the exhaust heat from cities. In applying hot water panels to sidewalks, there were two requirements that needed to be satisfied: (1) the panels had to be able to withstand the weight on the sidewalk; and (2) for safety purposes, the surface of the panels had to be slip-proof. For this reason, a structural study was conducted and four prototype panels were produced: (1) a polyurethane panel; (2) a concrete jacketed panel (3); an interlocking panel; and (4) a tiled panel. These prototype panels were used in site snow melting tests conducted in a cold region covered with snow in winter. The following results were obtained: (1) All of the panels radiated less heat than conventional sheet steel hot water panels, but the radiated heat was at a level that allowed application to sidewalks; (2) Each of the panels melted snow with higher efficiency than conventional hot water pipe method; and (3) The sidewalk hot water panels could melt snow at the feed water temperature of around 10 degrees centigrade, enabling the use of sewage heat and exhaust heat from cities, heretofore non-conventional energy.