The method consists of three basic steps: (i) a dasymetric method (Mennis 2003; Sleeter 2004) to eliminate the areas of environmental exclusion of human presence (cells), using a map of land use cover classifications as a reference; (ii) a multivariate interpolation method to generate a potential surface of settlement occurrence, using fuzzy inference over environmental data indicative of human presence (Zadeh 1988; Meirelles 1997); and (iii) the redistribution of population count values to each cell, proportionate to a potential occurrence of population defined from (ii).