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This paper introduces a novel top-down approach to geospatially identify and distinguish areas of mixed use from predominantly residential areas within urban agglomerations. Under the framework of the World Bank’s Central American Country Disaster Risk Profiles (CDRP) initiative, a disaggregated property stock exposure model has been developed as one of the key elements for disaster risk and loss estimation. Global spatial datasets are therefore used consistently to ensure wide-scale applicability and transferability. Residential and mixed use areas need to be identified in order to spatially link accordingly compiled property stock information. In the presented study, multi-sensor nighttime Earth Observation data and derivative products are evaluated as proxies to identify areas of peak human activity. Intense artificial night lighting in that context is associated with a high likelihood of commercial and/or industrial presence. Areas of low light intensity, in turn, can be considered more likely residential. Iterative intensity thresholding is tested for Cuenca City, Ecuador, in order to best match a given reference situation based on cadastral land use data. The results and findings are considered highly relevant for the CDRP initiative, but more generally underline the relevance of remote sensing data for top-down modeling approaches at a wide spatial scale.
