The Quality Assessment Method (QAM) is a tool developed for assessing the ‘Quality’ of post-tsunami housing settlements built with donor assistance in Sri Lanka. The meaning of ‘Quality’ in this assessment goes beyond the mere technical quality of buildings, to include parameters those relevant in long-term sustainability of these human settlements. Therefore, the term ‘Quality’ is defined in the context of QAM as a combination the quality of buildings, infrastructure and the qualitative aspects contributing to enhancement of economy, socio- cultural characters and the environment.
QAM is an initiative of Matara District Administration (later implemented for other tsunami affected districts Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Galle, Hambantota, Ampara, Batticaloa), supported by Tsunami Housing Support Project (THSP) of German Development Cooperation (gtz). Practical Action partnered with THSP in providing the consultancy inputs in developing the quality criteria.
The Department of Computer science of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka provided the expert consultancy to develop computer based software for the QAM. Initially the software was developed for Matara district and customized for the other Districts according to requirements of those District Administrations. The QAM computer software is capable of generating multitude of reports and graphical images to meet the requirements of the District Administration.