Material convergence is the influx of goods and supplies toward an impacted area after disaster [@wachtendorf2010].
The term matters because incoming supplies can solve urgent problems while also creating reception, storage, sorting, and distribution bottlenecks. Wachtendorf and coauthors show that Katrina revealed how catastrophic conditions intensify this problem and force responders to manage convergence actively rather than assume that more goods always mean better relief [@wachtendorf2010].
Related terms
- Convergence Behavior - the broader movement of people, information, and things toward disaster zones
- Spontaneous Volunteers - another form of convergence that can become either capacity or friction
- Practices of Emergent Disaster Response - a research text on logistics and distribution practices