Issues in managing disaster relief inventories

This essay is concerned with the inventories that are held for disaster relief and the need for research into their management. Though forecasting is difficult, the evidence is that the number of disasters, natural and political, is increasing. Thus the need for disaster relief is increasing along with the desire to improve the process, including management of disaster relief inventories. Despite decades of enterprise inventory research, little literature is available on disaster relief inventories. In this article the nature of disaster relief, some of the research on disaster relief and on disaster relief inventories is presented. Characteristics of disaster relief inventories important to their management, from acquisition through storage and distribution, are described. Some of the developments in related fields that affect the management of these inventories are also pointed out. As the frequency of disasters increase, the management of disaster relief inventories is an increasingly important area for scientific research.