Temporal land use analyses of spatial data pertaining to four metropolitan Indian cities reveals of a highly urbanized landscape and the influence of intense urbanisation in core areas on the buffer zones is evident with dispersed growth. Principal component analysis enabled the identification of higher urban growths. This denotes spatial patterns of temporal variability, with aggregation or sprawling regions. The findings suggest that the inner core city near the CBD represents the clumped growth, while dispersed growth are in the outer buffer regions. PCA aided in delineating the areas of urban growth with specific urban gradients. This helps in modelling of urban and sub urban regions for planning purposes, which provides valuable insights to urban growth patterns in buffer for evolving appropriate location specific planning strategies.