This project is a collaborative research initiative between FLAME University and Landstack that examines the relationship between land governance, tenure transitions, peri-urban development, and urban heat vulnerability in the Pune Metropolitan Region. The study focuses on understanding how land tenure systems, parcel subdivision patterns, planning regulations, and informal urban expansion shape urban heat outcomes in rapidly urbanising Growth Centres under Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA).

 

The project argues that urban heat islands, while being an environmental phenomenon, are also influenced by land governance systems and development trajectories. In India’s peri-urban regions, transitions from agricultural, common and customary lands into residential layouts, industrial clusters, and infrastructure corridors create long-term thermal impacts through changes in density, morphology, vegetation and infrastructure patterns.

 

The initiative combines geospatial analysis, Local Climate Zone (LCZ) mapping, Land Surface Temperature (LST) assessment, institutional diagnostics and tenure analysis to identify how planning systems and land administration processes influence climate resilience. By integrating climate science with land governance analysis, the project seeks to shift urban heat responses from reactive emergency measures toward proactive land-based planning interventions.