diff --git a/database/database_table.py b/database/database_table.py
index 99b0f9140dad792727fa2417762be7c5eb4d93db..73cd16a54d9c5781cd8c0e601ede100b7f860c9f 100644
--- a/database/database_table.py
+++ b/database/database_table.py
@@ -836,7 +836,7 @@ class DatabaseTable(Table):
                 fk_column = ttable.columns.get(fk_column.name)
                 query = query.where(fk_column == fkey)
             if year:
-                query = query.where(ttable.c.ano_censo == year)
+                query = query.where(ttable.columns.get(settings.YEAR_COLUMN) == year)
             yield query
 
     def apply_derivatives(self, ttable, columns, year, bind=None, dbonly=False):
@@ -908,7 +908,7 @@ class DatabaseTable(Table):
         for fk_column, fkey in fk_tuples:
             selecter = selecter.where(fk_column == fkey)
         if year:
-            selecter = selecter.where(self.c.ano_censo == year)
+            selecter = selecter.where(self.columns.get(settings.YEAR_COLUMN) == year)
 
         query = update(self).values(**{column.name: selecter})
 
diff --git a/settings.py b/settings.py
index 6bcf6102053db5215b13c2c3024d2053e9472a44..36dd10f504d092e046af72592e81115e2fe7195c 100644
--- a/settings.py
+++ b/settings.py
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ DATABASE_HOST = 'localhost'
 # Database to connect to
 DATABASE = 'hotmapper_demo'
 
+# Column used to run aggregations and denormalizations
+YEAR_COLUMN = 'ano_censo'
+
 # URI structure. Standards to login:password model, but can be changed as needed.
 DATABASE_URI = '{}://{}:{}@{}/{}'.format(DATABASE_DIALECT, DATABASE_USER,
                                          DATABASE_USER_PASSWORD, DATABASE_HOST, DATABASE)