¹Energy & Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in
² Research Associate at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). bharath@ces.iisc.ernet.in
³research scholar at Energy and Wetlands Research Group (EWRG), Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc). vinay@ces.iisc.ernet.in
⁴Faculty at Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore
⁵currently Post-doctoral fellow at NASA AMES Research Centre, USA
⁶Group Head, Urban Studies & Geoinformatics, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Indian

Study area

Rapidly growing tire 1 cities, namely Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kolkata and Hyderabad were considered for the current study. Administrative boundary of the cities along with 10 km buffer regions were considered under the study. Figure 1 depicts the locations of the select cities in India. Currently Ahmedabad and Bhopal are selected under smart city planning (http://www.smartcitieschallenge.in).
Ahmedabad locally known as Amdavad, 14th largest by area and 6th largest by population and 3rd fastest growing city of India is located along the banks of river Sabarmati of Gujarat. City has a population of 5.5 million people (2011 census), having spatial extent of 466km2, with a population density of 11,946 persons per square kilometer. It is the financial and economic hub of Gujarat dominated by textile industries, also known as the ‘Manchester of India’. The growth rate has led to a GDP of 64 billion USD in 2012
Bhopal is the Capital of Madhya Pradesh State; the city is also known as City of Lakes for its various natural as well as artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India. Bhopal is 15th largest city by area and 16th largest by Population of 1.9 million people.
Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state, is located along the banks of river Hooghly. Wetlands (Ramsar sites) are present to the eastern part of the city. Being one of the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre, Kolkata City has a population of 4496694 people, being the 7nd largest city in India. Considering the urban agglomerations, population of Kolkata urban agglomeration exceeds over 14.1 Million, the third largest after Delhi and Mumbai. GDP has reached over 102 Billion USD (2008).
Hyderabad is a capital of Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh (after partition in 2014). The city is located along the banks of river Musi. The city has a population of 7.74 Million people in 2011. The current area under the HUDA is over 7100km2. City in the recent past has found its place in the IT sector leading to rapid urbanization, with the current growth rate, Hyderabad is in the verge of being Mega city.

Fig. 1. Study sites