Research

For approximately the last 50 years, scientists from numerous academic fields have converged to develop a body of scholarship termed disaster research. Scholarship in this area includes, but is not limited to, the study of disaster mitigation and preparation, disaster vulnerability, community and infrastructure resilience, recovery efforts, psychological consequences of disaster, crisis communication, the intercultural impact of disasters, and economic recovery. Disaster research has drawn the interest of scholars from fields as diverse as sociology, psychology, public health, communication science, civil engineering, economics, and public policy. This research is conducted with the end goal of improving public policy and emergency planning, and minimizing the harm caused by future disasters.

As a field, disaster research has its roots in the founding of the Disaster Research Center (DRC), at Ohio State University in 1963 (it later moved to the University of Delaware in 1985). Led by sociologists E. L. Quarantelli and Russell Dynes, the center began conducting field and survey research on preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural and technological disasters and other community-wide crises, looking at these factors across group, organizational, and community lines. Researchers at the DRC began the tradition of comparative field studies examining differences in the social conditions surrounding hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous chemical incidents, and plane crashes. The DRC also extended this research into criminological research, exploring the causes and consequences of civil disturbances such as looting and rioting. Continued interest in disaster research has spawned other major research centers devoted to the study of disasters and crises. These include the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, the Center for Natural Hazards Research at East Carolina University, the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response at New York University, the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville University, and the Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Research at the University of Oklahoma, among others.