Technology development and disasters: Is there a silver lining to the dark cloud?

A significant amount of research was funded after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region. Topics range from the immediately known problems associated with flood control and weather forecasting into issues associated with social, economic and political landscapes. In an effort to understand the impact of a natural disaster on research and the implications for technology innovation and development, the current research will use tech mining approaches to analyse Science Citation Index (SCI) abstracts to determine the amount of research specifically related to Hurricane Katrina, as well as the specific subject matters studied as a result of that storm. The end result is a basis on which to analyse the impact of that storm's effects on technology research. This effort is but one step in understanding the impact of such disasters on technology development. Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.