Haoulata Touré, Cyril Dziedzorm Boateng, Solomon S.R. Gidigasu, David D. Wemegah, Vera Mensah, Jeffrey N.A. Aryee , Marian A. Osei

Surface waters are deteriorating due mainly to poor farming practices, illegal mining activities and also climate change. In the Central region this has led to a rise in the need for groundwater as potable water supply. However, the Central region is known to be characterized by unsuccessful rate of borehole drilling, which usually results in waste of time and resources. The need to delineate groundwater potential areas in the region has long been known. This study sought to map and delineate the groundwater potential zones of the Central Region by integrating input variables such as lineaments map deduced from magnetic data, digital elevation model, geology, soil type, land use land cover, drainage density, slope and flow accumulation maps using Fuzzy Logic (an Artificial Intelligence based algorithm) in a GIS software. The final map of groundwater potential was validated using borehole yield data and the reliability testing using the area under curve operation technique. Results of the study revealed that, the region is characterized by very low to high groundwater potential zones. About 3461.16 km2 of the region representing 35.68% and 3176.88 km2 (32.74%) were found to have low and very low groundwater potential respectively. Moderate groundwater potential zones cover about 1978 km2 constituting 20.4%, and high groundwater potential zones covers the least of about 1083.7 km2, representing 17%. The final output revealed that the high potential areas are mainly located in the central part of the region which is mainly occupied by granitoids rock types. The low areas are mostly encountered in the south eastern but are found also in the northern and central part of the region and fall mainly on metavolcanics rocks. It is recommended that the prospectively map can give valuable insights for sustainable water resource management and development in the Central region and also serve as guide for upcoming drilling campaigns in the region.