diff --git a/climada/entity/exposures/base.py b/climada/entity/exposures/base.py
index 580e649a7..738dec0ff 100644
--- a/climada/entity/exposures/base.py
+++ b/climada/entity/exposures/base.py
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ class Exposures():
         metadata - reference year
     value_unit : str
         metadata - unit of the exposures values
+    data : GeoDataFrame
+        containing at least the columns 'geometry' and 'value' for locations and assets
+        optionally more, a.o., 'region_id', 'category_id', columns for (hazard specific) assigned
+        centroids and (hazard specific) impact funcitons.
     """
     _metadata = ['description', 'ref_year', 'value_unit']
     """List of attributes, which are by default read, e.g., from hdf5"""
@@ -288,20 +292,26 @@ def __init__(self,
         ----------
         data : dict, iterable, DataFrame, ndarray
             data of the initial DataFrame, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
-        index : Index or array, optional
-            index of the initial DataFrame, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
         columns : Index or array, optional
             columns of the initial DataFrame, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
+            to be provided if `data` is an array
+        index : Index or array, optional
+            columns of the initial DataFrame, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
+            can optionally be provided if `data` is an array or for defining a specific row index
         dtype : dtype, optional
             data type of the initial DataFrame, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
+            can be used to assign specific data types to the columns in `data`
         copy : bool, optional
-            Whether to make a copy of the input data, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
+            Whether to make a copy of the input `data`, see ``pandas.DataFrame()``
+            default is False, i.e. by default `data` may be altered by the ``Exposures`` object.
         geometry : array, optional
             Geometry column, see ``geopandas.GeoDataFrame()``
+            must be provided if `lat` and `lon` are None and `data` has no "geometry" column.
         crs : value, optional
             Coordinate Reference System, see ``geopandas.GeoDataFrame()``
         meta : dict, optional
             Metadata dictionary. Default: {} (empty dictionary)
+            may be used to provide any of `description`, `ref_year`, `value_unit` and `crs`
         description : str, optional
             Default: None
         ref_year : int, optional
@@ -310,10 +320,13 @@ def __init__(self,
             Unit of the exposed value. Defaults to the entry of the same name in `meta` or 'USD'.
         value : array, optional
             Exposed value column
+            must be provided if `data` has no "value" column
         lat : array, optional
             Latitude column
+            can be provided together with `lon`, alternative to `geometry`
         lon : array, optional
             Longitude column
+            can be provided together with `lat`, alternative to `geometry`
         """
         geodata = GeoDataFrame(data=data, index=index, columns=columns, dtype=dtype, copy=False)