A method (100) of controlling an outdoor lighting system, a computer program product, a controlling device for controlling an outdoor lighting system and an outdoor lighting system are provided. The outdoor lighting system comprises outdoor lamps which are distributed over spatial segments of an outdoor space. The emitted light intensity of the outdoor lamps is controllable per spatial segment, and references are used to refer to specific spatial segments. The method (100) comprises the steps of (i) receiving (102) from a detection system an indication of a sub-area of the outdoor space and receiving at least one activity property or the sub-area, the detection system being arranged for detecting activity in the sub-area, the sub-area being different from all the spatial segments, and the indication being used to refer to the sub-area, and the at least one activity property being related to a traffic density in the sub-area (ii) mapping (104) the at least one indication to at least one reference of a respective spatial segment, (iii) determining (106) a light intensity level for the respective at least one spatial segment in dependence on the received at least one activity property, (iv) providing (108) the at least one reference together with the respective determined light intensity to the outdoor lighting system.