Construction industry is one of the devoting force of any country's economy. Around the world, Small Scale Contractors (SSC) has been found to play a significant role in creating jobs, infiltrating new markets and growing the economy in an inspired and inventive way. However, performance of SSCs in developing and minor developed countries is still not in adequate level due to various factors. Poor QS practices is one of the significant factor which affect to the current performance of the SSCs. Hence, this research aims to implement better QS practices to mitigate adverse impact to the small scale contractors due to plenty of poor QS practices. Particularly qualitative research approach was used for this study and accordingly data was collected from semi- structured interviews and analyzed using manual content analysis. Project delays, cost overruns of projects, cash flow problems, unable to win tenders, poor construction quality, delays in payments and contractual disputes were identified as major issues caused by the poor QS practices. This research suggests government to impose laws and regulations, offer tax relieves to contractors and impose legal requirements to participate in CPD sessions to minimize poor QS practices. Further clients and consultants can make timely payments to contractors and key suggestions to contractors are hire experienced and qualified professionals, provide well-coordinated training, adopt new technologies, keep clear and completed drawings and specifications, use cost and time controlling techniques and maintain good record keeping system.

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Spatial planning is managing the environmental, social and economic dimensions of development. Today the built environment suffers from a lot of natural hazards, resulted due to poor concentration over the environmental, social and economic aspects. Magnitudes and frequencies of these natural hazards has shifted from bad to worst in the recent past. Therefore, economic cost of these hazards has increased, and governments has been compelled to spend large amounts of public money to overcome these impacts on the built environment. Thus, in Sri Lankan context, these circumstances warrant the need to have a sustainable and realistic approach for the spatial planning in the built environment. Hence, the aim of this research was to enhance the cost and value efficiency in built environment against natural hazards through proper spatial planning in Sri Lankan context. Research was conducted mainly based on a questionnaire survey following the mixed research approach. Study identified the impact of poor spatial planning in the built environment in Sri Lankan context and study imparted set of guidelines to ensure effective spatial planning in the built environment in order to minimize the impact of adverse natural hazards. Finally, study concluded that, in order to establish a paradigm shift emphasizing the importance of effective spatial planning in the built environment, it is essential to have a clear understanding on natural process and other socio-economic concerns of the country.

Construction Joint Venture (CJV) is a response to the complex and competitive environment which characterised the nature of construction industry. However, various disputes arose in CJVs which impede the successful completion of the construction project especially as a result of the ineffective partner selection. Nevertheless, the literature thus far has failed to provide an effective partner selection for the CJVs since none of the studies subjected to partner selection in CJVs. Hence, the research is aimed to investigate the existing practice of partner selection in order to develop a model for avoiding disputes in CJVs in Sri Lanka. Three rounds of Delphi survey were conducted through the adoption of quantitative approach with the participation of experts who have plenty of experience and adequate knowledge on CJVs. The identified joint venture (JV) partner selection criteria from literature synthesis were the base for the adoption of the CJV partner selection criteria developed using the relative importance index. Consequently, effective CJV partner selection model was proposed based on the effect of dispute avoidance. The concern of literature and industry experts proved the absence of the standard partner selection criteria for the CJVs. However, guidelines for selecting partners provided in tender documents were followed by only contractors in order to fulfil the required criteria merely towards winning the project. Thus, the partner selection model proposed in this research provides a basis to select the most appropriate and the best partner for CJVs by evaluating all particular skills and capacities which may avoid having the future disputes.