While responding to a fan letter in The Walking Dead Deluxe #103, Kirkman answered the question about whether walkers would simply wander into the water or not, lacking the intelligence to know better. What he revealed is pretty interesting, admitting that most zombies would definitely fall for this trick and walk straight into the water and die.
While I do not subscribe to the idea of smart or evolving zombies, I would say that there can be some zombies that are more intelligent, or rather, more driven than others. So, some might, some might not.
Robert Kirkman Officially Answers Just How Smart The Walking Dead's Zombies Are
The Walking Dead Deluxe #103 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Dave McCaig, and Rus Wooton
While Kirkman isn't a fan of "smart" zombies, zombies have varying degrees of intelligence across all The Walking Dead media.
For example, if a human stood on a boat and made enough noise, one has to question if the walkers would simply walk into the water to try and get the human. The water would cause the walkers to rapidly decay and eventually disintegrate. Or, if someone made a wall of spikes and simply stood on the other side, the question would be if the walkers would mindlessly walk into the spikes attempting to get past the wall. Avid fans have long been asking these questions, and thankfully, Kirkman has finally responded with the definitive answer about the zombies' intelligence levels.
In The Walking Dead Some Zombies Are Simply Smarter Than Others
Kirkman Calls Them "Driven" Zombies
The Surprising Intelligence of Walkers in The Walking Dead Always Made Them Unpredictable
Even If They Can't Evolve Their Smarts
