ABSTRACT Groundwater becomes a priceless and dependable natural resource for any human consumption, development, and ecological services. Thus, prognostic methods of groundwater exploration, and management is crucial for sustainable utilization and development. Geospatial science techniques are the foremost effective and efficient tool for detection of groundwater prospective zones. Therefore, the study aims to detect groundwater potential zones in Gilgel Abay Watershed using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques. Lithology, geomorphology, drainage density, lineament density, rainfall, soil, slope and land use/land cover were identified as the determinant parameters for groundwater potential zone detection. Satellite images and ancillary data has been used for preparation of thematic layers using ArcGIS 10.3 and ERDAS 2010 Softwares. MultiCriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weight overlay analysis methods have been used to detect the groundwater potential zones by integrating the thematic layers with different inter and intera-weight. The weightage of thematic layers were estimated based on their characteristic and relationship with groundwater recharge and retention capacity. Finally, the thematic maps were integrated through weighted overlay analysis tool to develop groundwater prospect zones. Based on the results the study area catagorised into three zones, namely high, moderate and low potential zones with an area of 106.40km 2 (6.42%), 1348.35km (81.35%) and 202.76km 2 (12.23%), respectively. The prediction was validated through GWR(Geographically Weighted Regression) with R 2 value of 0.8884 (88.84% accuracy). The analysis of climate and land use/land cover change shows a negative impact on the watershed resulting increasing of runoff, and decreasing of baseflow. Moreover, land use/land cover change has more severe impact than climate change. As a general Gilgel Abay Watershed shows a symptom of overabstraction, mismanagement, exponetialy growing demand of groundwater for different purpose, and intense land use/land cover change. Detecting groundwater potential before the exploitation, integrated management of land use/land cover change and watershed management through participating all stakeholders to increase infiltration/enhance recharge and decrease runoff, and protection of all usable groundwater resources, should be undertaken for effective site selection, sustainable groundwater development, utilization and management, based on the assumption that all effectively accessible groundwater resources are, or could be, tapped for drinking or other purposes now or in the future. Keywords: Groundwater potential, GIS and Remote Sensing , Gilgel Abay Watershed, Multi Criteria Decision Analysis(MCDA), Weighted Overlay Analysis 2