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Preference Selection Index and Geospatial Technique for

Groundwater Potentiality Zonation in Aizawl district, Mizoram,
India

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 Trans. Inst. Indian Geographers
ISSN 0970-9851
Indexed in Scopus

Preference Selection Index and Geospatial Technique for

Groundwater Potentiality Zonation in Aizawl district, Mizoram,
India

Jonmenjoy Barman, Mizoram; David Durjoy Lal Soren, Mizoram; Sushila Roy,
West Bengal; Kuduri Srinivasa Rao, Mizoram and Brototi Biswas*, Mizoram

Abstract
In hilly topography, groundwater mapping is crucial owing to maximum precipitation
washout through surface runoff. Keeping this in mind, groundwater potential zonation was
done in the capital district of the state of Mizoram-Aizawl, using the preference selection
index (PSI), a multi-criteria decision-making tool that takes eleven criteria into account:
slope, aspect, elevation, rainfall distribution, distance to the river, precipitation concentration
index, topographic wetness index, normalised difference index, normalised difference water
index, geology, and land use land cover. An inverse distance weighting (IDW) technique
was adopted for GPZ based on the PSI value of 10,000 random alternative points. Further,
GPZ was classified as having very high potential, high potential, moderate potential, low
potential, and very low potential based on the natural breaking classification system. The
study highlighted that 5.16 percent of the total area falls under very high potential, followed
by 16.02 percent in high potential, 27.76 percent in moderate potential, 31 percent in low
potential, and 19.46 percent in very low potential, respectively.

Keywords: MCDM, Groundwater, PSI, Aizawl

Introduction
One of the most crucial resources for useful and efficient tool for groundwater
maintaining life is water. Of all the sources exploration for targeting water resources for
of freshwater resources, groundwater is one local supply. This technique can provide key
of the most critical sources for drinking and data that can be corroborated by other field
irrigation. Only a fraction of the precipitation techniques (Gupta, 2003). GIS lays out a
seeps into the ground and is stored and number of tools for extracting information
contributes around 30 percent of the world’s on the groundwater prospect of a region from
constituting the largest source of non-frozen the remotely sensed images by combining
freshwater (Wada, 2016). The most important information in relation to land use, vegetation,
criterion for the occurrence of groundwater lithology, geomorphology, etc. (Rawal et al.,
and its flow are that the lithological horizon 2016). Different bivariate and multivariate
is porous and permeable, thereby allowing techniques have been previously used, namely
water movement with ease (Nagabhushaniah, frequency ratio (Razandi et al., 2015, Guru
2001). Remote sensing has been a very et al., 2017); maximum entropy (Rahmati et

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al., 2016); logistic regression (Nguyen et al., features. The district extends from 23º19'40"N
2020); support vector machine (Naghibi et to 24º 29'N latitude and 92º 40'E to 93º10'E
al., 2017, Miraki et al., 2019) in groundwater longitude and is bounded by Champhai district
potentiality zonation. in the east, Mamit district in the west, Lunglei
district in the south-west, Kolasib district in
Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) the north-west, Serchip district in the south,
methods are increasingly being used in Assam and Manipur in the north and north-
different streams of the sciences and social east respectively (Fig. 1). Physiographically,
sciences. The advantage of the PSI multi- the district is characterized by anticlines and
criteria method is it does not incorporate synclines. The southwest monsoon directly
criteria weightage for decision-making, controls the annual precipitation, which
while most of the MCDMs need relative is approximately 2500 mm (Barman and
weightage for the criteria, which is always Das, 2023). The district of Aizawl is known
time-consuming and problematic. The state as the heart of Mizoram which includes
of Mizoram as a whole consists of rugged a number of small rural settlements and
mountains. Although the region receives a Aizawl city. Owing to the dearth of potable
good amount of rainfall annually, shortage water in the villages of the Aizawl district,
of water nevertheless is a serious problem in springs (locally called Tuikhurs) become
Mizoram. The steep slopes lead to excessive the backbone of water supply in the villages
of the district (Biswas et al., 2021). Though
runoff during the monsoon without much
rainfall is sufficient during the monsoon, the
availability of storage, resulting in scarcity
post-monsoon period suffers from a shortage
of water during other seasons (Barman &
of water. By tradition, Mizo people have been
Biswas, 2022). The shortage of water is practising Jhum (shifting) cultivation for a
more acutely felt as Mizoram's population is long. Due to rugged topography, maximum
hugely invested in farming. Scientific insight precipitation goes down as surface runoff.
with the proper management of groundwater Major rivers of the district such as Tlawng,
is much needed for sustainable usage of Turial, Tuivawl, and Chite are perennial, and
the same. The present study is carried out other small streams play an important role in
on the preference selection index (PSI) for the daily life of the local population.
groundwater index. Aizawl, one of the most
Database
populous districts of Mizoram regularly faces
water shortages owing to insufficient water Groundwater is not randomly distributed all
supply, mismanagement of the natural springs, over the world. The storage of groundwater
and high population density. A sustainable depends on specific geo-environmental
method for accessing groundwater is needed. conditions. For the current study, daily rainfall
data from 1990 to 2020 was downloaded from
Materials and methodology IMD, Pune to prepare long-term average
Study area rainfall and precipitation concentration index
factors. Likewise, morphometric indices
The Purvanchal range is the eastern extension like slope, aspect, elevation, and TWI, have
of the Himalayan mountains, which is made been prepared from the ASTER 30m digital
of fragile tertiary deposition. Rough and elevation model. Good groundwater storage
deep valleys are common geomorphological directly depends on the nature of rock beds.

68 | Transactions | Vol. 45, No. 2, 2023

 Fig. 1: Location of the study area. (a) Mizoram in NE India, (b) Aizawl district in Mizoram,
(c) Elevation distribution in Aizawl district.
The geology map was digitized from Barman (Emovon et al., 2020). Eswaran et al., in 2018
and Rao (2021) paper. carried out spectrum moderator using PSI
Subsequently, the river networks were for fog-assisted internet of things. Jha et al.,
extracted from OSM (Open Street Map) and 2018 used PSI to decide the optimum phase
the Euclidean distance technique was used for combination of biodegradable composites.
preparing the distance to the rivers. The land Similar to the Entropy and CRITIC objective
use land cover and the other two vegetation weighting systems, PSI can also itself
indices, namely NDVI and NDWI were determine the criteria weight. The model has
prepared from Landsat 8 OLI access from several steps as follows:
USGS. A brief description of all the thematic (a) Selection of relevant groundwater
layers is tabulated in Table 1. conditioning factors.
Preference selection index (PSI) (b) Decision matrix: A decision matrix
The model PSI was developed by Maniya and is used for holding all the information as
Bhatt in 2010 for a materials selection problem criteria and alternatives. Each of the rows and

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Table 1: Database
Products Sources Types Resolution
Rainfall Climate Monitoring and Prediction Group (imdpune.gov.in) Grided 0.25
Digital elevation Earthdata | Earthdata (nasa.gov) Raster 30m
model
OSM BBBike extracts OpenStreetMap Vector NA
Landsat8 OLI EarthExplorer (usgs.gov) Raster 30m

columns represents criteria and alternative

(4)
criteria, respectively. Therefore, Yij of the
Y decision matrix gives the non-normalized
(e) Preference variation values of every
real value of the Jth alternative and units
criterion have been calculated using Eq. 5.
for the ith alternative. If a decision matrix
has c alternative and d criteria, c*d matrix (5)
mathematically can be formulated as Eq. 1.
(f) Deviation in the preference values for every
attribute has been computed using Eq. 6.
(1)
(6)

(g) Eq.7 was used to measure each criteria

(c) Normalization of decision matrix: a weight.
decision matrix needs to normalized for
making the decision values dimensionless. (7)
For this intention, the attribute values are
converted into 0 and 1. For the beneficial (h) In the final stage, the preference selection
criteria, the maximum value is the desired index value of alternatives was used to
value and the minimum is the desired value determine the groundwater potentiality using
for non-beneficial criteria. Eq. 8.

Eq. 2 and 3 were used for normalization based (8)

on the nature of the criteria.
The largest preference selection index
value denotes more groundwater potentiality.
(For beneficiary criteria) (2)
Groundwater conditioning factors
Slope is an inclined ground surface that
(For non-beneficiary criteria) (3) can either be natural or man-made greatly
impacting the groundwater condition
(d) Mean values of normalized performances such as speed and retention of runoff as
in relation to each criterion have been done well as infiltration of rainwater into the
using Eq. 4. ground. Topographically Aizawl district

70 | Transactions | Vol. 45, No. 2, 2023

is characterized by a steep slope ranging mm, mainly distributed in the northern and
between 0 and 720. Flat areas, unlike steeper western parts of the study area.
slopes, have good infiltration capability due Distance to river (DTR): Lithology and
to a slower rate of runoff, permitting greater river networks are related to each other and
water retention and infiltration. Thus, slope play a significant role in the occurrence
gradient directly affects infiltration, thereby and availability of groundwater. Thus,
leaving the area as a less potential recharge groundwater recharge has been found to be
point. greatly influenced by river flow leading to
Aspect is the compass direction that a fluctuation in groundwater levels. Hence,
topographic slope faces, usually measured in distance from the river is considered for
degrees from north. Aspect can be generated delineating groundwater potential zones
from continuous elevation surfaces. Aspect (Mohammadtaghi et al., 2020). The distance
gives slope directions that influence the to river map for the current study was prepared
amount of rainfall, wind speed, and land cover from the open street map using the Euclidean
which directly affect the amount of rainwater distance method in the ArcGIS environment.
infiltrating the soil and hence, influencing Precipitation Concentration Index
groundwater occurrence (Moghaddam et al., (PCI) is a powerful indicator for temporal
2020). precipitation changes and is also very useful
Elevation of a geographic location is its for the assessment of seasonal precipitation
height above or below a fixed reference changes (Zhang et al., 2019). PCI is one of
point, most commonly a reference geoid. the important climatic variables due to the
It is a mathematical model of the earth’s intensity and amount of rainfall. The PCI
allows quantifying the relative distribution
sea level as an equipotential gravitational
of precipitation patterns. When information
surface. The elevation is considered because
on long-term total variability in the recorded
the altitude of topography controls the speed
precipitation amount is generated, it can be
of surface runoff and its direction on ground
used as an indicator of a particular region
level; thereby, influencing water permeability
or area that falls in the potential zone for
(Zhang & Li, 2009). The elevation in the
groundwater recharge and storage (Gocic et
study area ranges between 12m and 1899m.
al., 2016).
Long term average rainfall (R) is the
average rainfall recorded during the last 30 (9)
years (IMD, 2020) from 1990 to 2020. The
recharge of groundwater, estimated from The PCI value of the study area ranges
long-term piezometric records, is observed to between 16.73 and 17.54, denoting irregular
be directly connected to annual rainfall when precipitation distribution in the district.
referred to in previous studies. Reduced but Topographic wetness index (TWI)
heavier rainfall may result in an increase in quantifies the influence of topography on
groundwater recharge (Kotchoni et al., 2018). hydrological processes and can be used to
The average annual rainfall of the study area characterise biological processes such as
ranges between 2266.56 mm and 2623.29 forest site quality, vegetation patterns, and

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so on (Beven & Kirby, 1979, Sorenson et and low vegetation cover. The NDWI ratio is
al., 2006). TWI is often used for describing calculated as:
spatial moisture patterns to illustrate the
influence of topographic conditions on (12)
groundwater. It plays an important role in
effecting the movement and accumulation of Where NIR and SWIR are bands 5 and 6
runoff at the surface of the soil which in turn of Landsat 8 satellite images represented near
influences the efficiency of recharge points of infrared and short wave near infrared.
groundwater (Benjmel et al., 2020). Geology plays an important role in the
accumulation, occurrence, and distribution
(10) of groundwater in any terrain (Chen et al.,
2022). The availability of groundwater
where α represents scaled flow is largely influenced by the surface and
accumulation and tan β represents the slope. subsurface geology of an area, as the porosity
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and permeability of a geologic formation
(NDVI) is used for observing any particular control its ability to retain and transmit
area to determine whether the selected zone water. In geologic formations with well-
hosts healthy vegetation or not. When the connected spaces, faster water movement
NDVI value is high, it suggests a healthy and through the rock results in faster groundwater
thick type of vegetation, and a value on the recharge, while geologic formations having
lower side suggests not-so-healthy vegetation lower permeability will have slower water
that is sparse in distribution (Taloor, 2021). movement through the rocks, resulting in
slower groundwater recharge (Abdulrahman
NDVI is calculated as:
et al., 2020). Aizawl district falls under the
Surma Group's Bakobil formation with
lithology consisting of sandstone, siltstone,
(11)
shale, and their various proportions (Bharali
where Red and NIR stand for the spectral et al., 2017).
reflectance measurements acquired in the red
Land Use/Land Cover (LULC): To help
and near-infrared regions, respectively. In
understand the natural characteristics of
Landsat 8 OLI bands 5 and 4 represent the
any land surface, one of the most necessary
near-infrared and red respectively.
thematic layers is LULC. Most of the changes
Normalized Difference Water Index in LULC are engendered by human action for
(NDWI) is a satellite-derived index from development. A dense forest usually results
the near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave in a lower groundwater volume since the
infrared (SWIR) channels (Gao, 1996). It is vegetation draws a large volume of water,
used for monitoring changes related to water despite reducing the volume of surface
content in water bodies. A high NDWI value runoff. When forest cover is decreased, it
corresponds to high plant water content and results in an increased flow of water into the
high density of vegetation while a low NDWI river from groundwater (Ouyan et al., 2019).
value corresponds to low vegetation content In the present study land use land cover map

72 | Transactions | Vol. 45, No. 2, 2023

 Fig. 2: Groundwater potentiality conditioning factors. (a) Slope, (b) Aspect, (c) Elevation,
(d) Average rainfall, (e) Distance to river, (f) Precipitation concentration index (PCI),

Fig. 2 (continue) (g) Topographic wetness index (TWI), (h) Normalized difference vegetation
index (NDVI), (i) Normalized difference water index (NDWI), (j) Geology, and
(k) Land use land cover (LULC).

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Table 2: Decision matrix
SL.No. Slope Aspect Elevation R DTR PCI TWI NDVI NDWI Geology LULC
1 40.45 125.15 90 2610.18 1897.6 16.93 3.5 0.34 0.1 2 1
2 4.68 229.09 249 2623.29 150 16.87 -3.47 0.32 0.16 2 1
3 19.03 206.26 137 2610.27 169.71 16.93 3.5 0.37 0.15 2 1
4 18.47 179.29 140 2610.34 234.31 16.92 3.5 0.39 0.16 2 1
5 26.82 123.69 92 2610.55 90 16.92 -3.63 0.27 0.16 2 1
…..... …...... …..... ….... ….... …..... …..... …... …... …... ….....
19912 21.2 212.85 452 2403.85 750.6 17.36 3.5 0.31 0.11 2 1
19913 33.2 188.33 926 2406.04 67.08 17.37 3.5 0.38 0.18 3 3
19914 20.57 236.66 576 2407.3 276.59 17.37 -4.06 0.32 0.17 2 3
19915 22.24 131.73 1116 2402.24 212.13 17.38 -3.31 0.36 0.2 2 1
19916 21.02 75.07 712 2411.62 42.43 17.35 3.5 0.37 0.18 3 1

was prepared by supervised technique using high, and very high potentiality zones. The
a support vector machine algorithm. All the district as a whole is characterized by very
groundwater conditioning factors for the low potential, with patches of very high, high,
present study are presented in Figure 2. and moderate potential zones (Fig. 3). Only
5.16 percent of the total area covers very high
Result
potential, followed by high 16.02 percent,
On the basis of different criteria, groundwater moderate 27.76 percent, low 31.60 percent
potential was studied in a similar condition. and very low 19.46 percent of the total area
PSI was calculated using long-term average (Fig. 4 and Table 4). For lack of groundwater
rainfall, precipitation concentration index, information, accuracy tests for the present
NDVI, NDWI, geology, elevation, aspect, study have not been done. However, the
slope, LULC, TWI, and distance to the river. previous study by Lalbiakmawia (2015)
As the current model is not pixel-based like demarked low-lying areas, riverine valleys,
the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) (Sari, and floodplain areas as highly potential for
2021), 10,000 random points in the study area groundwater potential. PHED, Mizoram,
were chosen for the representation of criteria 2020 reported groundwater depth (GWD)
values (Table 2). Based on PSI values, the ranging from 8.80-1.25m below ground level
IDW interpolation technique was adopted for in Mizoram. The GWD depletion during pre-
preparing the groundwater potentiality zones monsoon and post-monsoon is 0.32m and
(Table 3). The natural break classifier system 0.57m, respectively, about 0.50m on average.
is used to understand the potentiality level A field survey by CGWB revealed instances
and has been classified into five potentiality of small pond-like formations with relatively
classes, namely very low, low, moderate, shallow water levels (2.0 m bgl). Dissected

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Table 3: Distribution of PSI
X Y PSI
92.6799 23.7780043 2845.86
93.0093 24.2440386 2485.03
92.9068 23.9638831 696.968
92.9195 23.8527359 31.6843
92.913 24.2557076 2786.64
….. ….. ….
92.94 24.2520049 1034.23
93.0389 24.0465266 159.787
93.1326 24.0402158 2992.42
93.0055 24.2807015 2026.3
93.012 23.9092752 9714.72

Table 4: Areal distribution of groundwater potentiality

Groundwater potentiality zones Area Area (%)
Very high potentiality 178.09 5.16
High potentiality 552.76 16.02
Moderate potentiality 957.74 27.76
Low potentiality 1090.41 31.60
Very low potentiality 671.39 19.46

hills are characterized by high runoff and while determining a groundwater potential
low water infiltration and permeability. zone. Each factor performs differently for
Siltstone, hard compacted sandstone, shale, various criteria, and these performances
and their alternation in the Surma group in occasionally contradict one another. It is
moderate linear ridges are extremely poor exceedingly rare for any single factor to meet
for infiltration and permeability capacity, and satisfy all of the requirements. Problems
and have a low groundwater potentiality and involving the selection of contrasting and
hence high runoff.
incompatible criteria fall under the category
Discussion of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM).
Long-term average rainfall, precipitation Compared to other MCDM methods in the
concentration index, NDVI, NDWI, geology, literature, namely WASPAS, SAW, TOPSIS,
elevation, aspect, slope, LULC, TWI, and ARAS, and VIKOR, the PSI is a significant
distance to the river are important factors MCDM method having significant importance

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 Fig. 3: Spatial distribution of groundwater potentiality zones.

76 | Transactions | Vol. 45, No. 2, 2023

 5%
19%
16%

32% 28%

Very high potentiality High potentiality

Moderate potentiality Low potentiality
Very low potentiality

Fig. 4: Areal distribution of groundwater potentiality in percentage.

(Attri and Grover, 2013). It is simple to geology, LULC, long-term average annual
calculate and ignores the relative importance rainfall, PCI, distance to river, TWI, NDVI and
of the conditioning factors (Jha et al., 2018). NDWI. As the area is located in the northern
Initially, the decision matrix consists of hemisphere, the south and south-east slopes
alternatives in the column and criteria in receive huge rain during monsoon (Barman
the row arranged for the decision problem. et al., 2022). Slope is another groundwater-
Thereafter, the matrix is normalized, based controlling factor in the district. It is found
on beneficial and non-beneficial criteria. that very high groundwater potentiality
Beneficial criteria are those that are directly is located between 0 and 170. Similar to
proportional to groundwater potential. the slope, the elevation of the district has
a significant contribution to groundwater
The distribution of long-term average potentiality. Arabameri et al., 2019 have noted
rainfall, river distance, TWI, NDVI, and elevation as the highest contributing factor
NDWI are all considered useful criteria. to groundwater potentiality in the Damghan
Subsequently, slope, aspect, geology, and sedimentary plain, Iran. The result shows
LULC are considered non-beneficial criteria. that most of the areas have very low potential
As mentioned above PSI itself determined for groundwater. Based on hydrogeological
objective weight for criteria. The aspect formation, two types of rocks, namely un-
has the highest contribution in groundwater consolidated and semi-consolidated are the
potentiality followed by slope and elevation, dominant types in Mizoram (PHE department,

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Govt. of Mizoram, 2020). Most of the drinking water problems, especially during
area is covered by semi-consolidated rock the winter months. The identification of
formations, including sandstone, limestone, groundwater potential zones in the Aizawl
and shale characterized by low potential for district through the MCDM technique of the
groundwater and having secondary porosity Preference Selection Index was presented in
(Singh et al., 2013; Sharma & Kumar, this study. The results show that only 5.16
2008). Only the western part of the area has percent of the total area comes under the ambit
unconsolidated rock formations in flood of the "very high potential zone", followed
plains and river valleys, primarily the Tlawng by high (16.02%), moderate (27.76%), low
River valley region. The adjoining areas (31.60%), and very low (19.46%) potential
have high groundwater potential owing to areas. The geological, slope morphology,
the presence of sand, silt, gravel, etc., which and lithological setting enable high surface
are permeable in nature (Singha et al., 2021; runoff, resulting in the bulk of the rainwater
Thakur & Raghuwanshi, 2008). being washed out of the basin. The region is
mainly dominated by shale, sandstone, and
The region is further helped by high limestone, which have a low potential for
rainfall thereby increasing the potentiality of groundwater storage/holding. In most cases,
groundwater. Mizoram is tectonically active groundwater is discharged onto the surface
and geologically immature. The occurrence through tectonically weak areas as spring
of groundwater is further accentuated by the water and for a long time, local people have
random distribution of faults, lineaments, and conserved rainwater in a traditional way. A
fractures. Most of the time, the groundwater deficit of water has been observed in recent
is discharged as spring water. A survey years due to overpopulation and an increase
conducted by CGWB in Guwahati mentioned in built-up areas, mainly in urban areas.
that most of the springs are fracture-oriented The future study will be directed toward
and perennial in nature. They also reported groundwater inventory mapping. The region,
during the dry season (January to March), blessed with ample rainfall and mountainous
between 3,000 and 20,000 litres of water are streams can overcome water scarcity/deficit
discharged daily from these springs. issues to a great extent by applying the geo-
spatial analysis for assessment and evaluation
Conclusion
as suggested in this research.
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