From Maps to Action: Using Geospatial Insights to Enable Community Greening for Urban Resilience in Pune

Abstract. The rapid urbanization of Pune, Maharashtra, over recent decades has intensified thermal impacts through the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, caused by replacing natural surfaces with impervious concrete and asphalt. This has led to higher nighttime land surface temperatures (LST), particularly in builtup and periurban areas compared to rural surroundings. While traditional UHI assessments correlate LST with land use alone, the InVEST Urban Cooling Model integrates remotely sensed biophysical parameters such as albedo, shading, evapotranspiration, along with proximity to green infrastructure into a pixel level framework that calculates Cooling Capacity (CC) and a Heat Mitigation Index (HMI). Seasonal LST composites for summer, monsoon, and winter were generated from Landsat 8 thermal bands (cloud cover <10 using the InVEST model). Per pixel Cooling Capacity values ranged from 0.116 to 0.943, while HMI values spanned from 0.116 to 0.943 across the metropolitan region. The highest values (>0.70) were found in heavily vegetated wards with dense forest cover and riverine zones, while the lowest values (<0.35) occurred in industrial and high density built-up areas with minimal vegetation cover. The resulting decision-ready maps provide a spatial blueprint not only for urban planners and local authorities but also for citizen groups, neighbourhood associations, and NGOs to collaboratively identify and prioritise greening interventions. By combining geospatial evidence with participatory planning, the study fosters community-led initiatives- such as urban forests, green roofs, and vegetative corridors- that are locally relevant, socially inclusive, and climate-resilient. This approach empowers citizens to be active co-creators of cooler, healthier, and more liveable urban environments across Pune’s urban- rural continuum.