# Abandoned Settlements, Abandoned Health

> **NIH NIH R21** · FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $425,184

## Abstract

Project Summary
Up to 3 billion people will reside outside of the human climate niche due to climate change by the end of the
century and the wholesale abandonment of communities are now a reality. As some communities in the US
become increasingly environmentally precarious and settlements become abandoned, migration away from
these areas could increase exposure to displacement-related stressful life events (DR-SLEs) and their impact
on health. Such DR-SLEs are associated with short-term reduced health outcomes but little is known about
how these short-term reduced health outcomes could translate into long-term reduced health outcomes. No
database of US abandoned settlements currently exists, hindering our ability to study the long-term health
impacts of DR-SLEs. This project will build a comprehensive database of all enumerated places since 1890
and verify any settlements abandoned during since. We will then leverage this database by linking verified,
abandoned places between Census 1940 and 1950 to individuals in CenSoc, an NIA-funded database which
matches deceased persons in the Social Security Administration’s Death File to their 1940 Census record, to
estimate the causal effect of settlement abandonment on longevity using a synthetic control design. Findings
from this project will directly inform ongoing federal, state, and local policies of managed retreat and illustrate
the mortality penalty settlement abandonment could place on the millions of anticipated US-based climate
migrants this century.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10951153
- **Project number:** 1R21AG088598-01
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mathew Hauer
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $425,184
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10951153

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10951153, Abandoned Settlements, Abandoned Health (1R21AG088598-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10951153. Licensed CC0.

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