Proceedings of the 4 th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2018), 9~11 February 2018, KUET, Khulna, Bangladesh (ISBN-978-984-34-3502-6) ICCESD-2018-5202-1 APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE AND GEOSTATISTICAL APPROACHES IN ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF HEAVY METAL SOURCES IN SOIL OF WASTE DISPOSAL SITE AT KHULNA Sanjida Khair 1 and Islam M. Rafizul 2 1 Post graduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh, email: priyo.0901091@gmail.com 3 Associate Professor, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh, email: imrafizul@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The main focused of the study was to identify the possible sources of contamination of metal elements in soil of waste disposal site. To theses endeavor, sixty soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-30 cm from the existing ground surface from a selected waste disposal site at Rajbandh, Khulna, Bangladesh. In the laboratory, the concentrations of metal elements of Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sc, Sr, Ti, V and Zn in soil were measured. Descriptive and multivariate statistics including Pearson’s correlation, principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were used. In addition, Inverse distance weighting (IDW) with power of 1-5 through ArcGIS were performed. Results of descriptive statistics reveals that concentrations of metal elements followed almost same pattern during both the dry and rainy seasons. Results of Pearson’s correlation depicts that the sources of metal elements were almost the same and these metal elements might be derived from the waste accumulation activity. In addition, PCA reported that generation of Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Fe, K, Na, Ni, Sb, Sc, Sr, Ti and V from anthropogenic activities, while, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn from natural sources and Cr from both sources in dry season. In rainy season, Al, Ba, Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Sb, Sc, Sr, Ti and V generated from anthropogenic activities whereas As, Cr, Hg, Mn, K and Na from natural sources and Cd, Pb and Zn from both sources.These results is in agreement with output obtained from AHC. In addition, patial distribution of waste disposal site epitomized most contaminated hotspots were found to be the nearest soil sampling point with respect to the central point of the selected disposal site. Keywords: Disposal site, Multivariate analysis, spatial distribution, Inverse Distance Weighting, Khulna 1. INTRODUCTION In recent periods, existence of metal elements in soil has become a foremost concern that arise necessities of monitoring the endangerment of soil by contamination of metal elements. Non-biodegradability characteristics and elongated biological half-lives of metal elements for abolition, their accretion in nutrition chain will obligate a substantial effect on all living element. The huge quantities of municipal solid waste (MSW) in waste disposal site going through distinct biological, physical and chemical processes for decomposition, produced leachate and contaminated soil which creates vulnerable to the environmental components and nearby inhabitants (Nriagu and Pacyna, 1988). The metal elements in soil are either derived from natural parent rock materials or anthropogenic activities such as urban- industrial development, landfill management, vehicular emissions, fossil fuel combustion and agricultural practices (Tahir et al., 2007). Contamination of soil occurs when the presence of toxic chemicals, pollutants or contaminants from fertilizers, organic wastes, organic pesticides, with high concentrations in soil (Jia et al., 2010). Ingestion of food grown in contaminated soil and intake of water from contaminated water bodies cause great risk to plants, wildlife, humans and of course for the soil itself. The application of multivariate statistical approaches such as principal component analysis (PCA), agglomerative