{"id":49941,"date":"2025-09-15T04:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/?p=49941"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:24:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:24:44","slug":"when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jonathan Sullivan, a new hire in the Nelson Institute through the RISE-EARTH hiring initiative<\/a>, was among the authors of a nationwide study<\/a> that analyzed how severe floods in the contiguous United States were linked to increased hospitalizations among adults over 65 for several health issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n\"\"\n\n\n\n
Jonathan Sullivan<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The study looked at over 4.5 million hospitalizations from 2000 to 2016 using Medicare data and satellite flood maps. Health impacts varied by community demographics, with areas that had more Black residents experiencing higher rates of skin and mental health-related hospitalizations, while nervous system-related hospitalizations were more pronounced in areas with fewer Black residents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan is an assistant professor of environmental studies in the Nelson Institute. His research examines how the intersection of land rights, climate hazards, and human well-being shapes emerging injustices and inequalities in the wake of socio-political and environmental disruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan coauthors national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[49,34],"tags":[35,47],"post_template":[],"class_list":["post-49941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-water","tag-fall-2025","tag-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NelsonInstitute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1081\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anica Graney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anica Graney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anica Graney\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/df6b0e36a655b32dc89a8b6ad9abcd75\"},\"headline\":\"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":144,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/flooded-neighborhood.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Fall 2025\",\"Research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\",\"Water\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/\",\"name\":\"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/flooded-neighborhood.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/flooded-neighborhood.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/flooded-neighborhood.webp\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1081,\"caption\":\"Sandbags stacked in front of a flooded neighborhood as rescue workers in a boat assist residents.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Commons\",\"description\":\"UW\u2013Madison\u2019s quarterly environmental magazine from the Nelson Institute\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Commons Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/wrm60-5.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/wrm60-5.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"The Commons Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/NelsonInstitute\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/nelsoninstitute\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/nelsoninstitute\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/nelson-institute-for-environmental-studies\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/200678372@N03\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/df6b0e36a655b32dc89a8b6ad9abcd75\",\"name\":\"Anica Graney\",\"description\":\"Anica Graney began as a student communications assistant and has continued with the Nelson Institute after graduating in 2023, building her career in environmental and nonprofit communications.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nelson.wisc.edu\\\/the-commons\\\/author\\\/agraney\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine","description":"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine","og_description":"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.","og_url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/","og_site_name":"The Commons","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NelsonInstitute\/","article_published_time":"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1081,"url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Anica Graney","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anica Graney","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/"},"author":{"name":"Anica Graney","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#\/schema\/person\/df6b0e36a655b32dc89a8b6ad9abcd75"},"headline":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks","datePublished":"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/"},"wordCount":144,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp","keywords":["Fall 2025","Research"],"articleSection":["Health","Water"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/","name":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks | The Commons Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp","datePublished":"2025-09-15T09:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-15T11:24:44+00:00","description":"Nelson faculty member Jonathan Sullivan co-authored a national study linking severe floods to higher hospitalization rates and unequal impacts across communities.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/flooded-neighborhood.webp","width":1920,"height":1081,"caption":"Sandbags stacked in front of a flooded neighborhood as rescue workers in a boat assist residents."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/when-waters-rise-so-do-health-risks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Waters Rise, so Do Health Risks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/","name":"The Commons","description":"UW\u2013Madison\u2019s quarterly environmental magazine from the Nelson Institute","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#organization","name":"The Commons Magazine","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/wrm60-5.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/wrm60-5.webp","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"The Commons Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NelsonInstitute\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nelsoninstitute","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/nelsoninstitute","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/nelson-institute-for-environmental-studies","https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/200678372@N03\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/#\/schema\/person\/df6b0e36a655b32dc89a8b6ad9abcd75","name":"Anica Graney","description":"Anica Graney began as a student communications assistant and has continued with the Nelson Institute after graduating in 2023, building her career in environmental and nonprofit communications.","url":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/author\/agraney\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50321,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49941\/revisions\/50321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49941"},{"taxonomy":"post_template","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template?post=49941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}