The conventional seismic approaches for near-surface investigation have usually been either high-resolution reflection or refraction surveys that deal with a depth range of a few tens to hundreds meters. Seismic signals from these surveys consist of wavelets with frequencies higher than 50 Hz. The multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method deals with surface waves in the lower frequencies (e.g., 1-30 Hz) and uses a much shallower depth range of investigation (e.g., a few to a few tens of meters).Shear modulus is directly linked to a material's stiffness and is one of the most critical engineering parameters. Seismically, shear-wave velocity (V S ) is its best indicator. Although methods like shear-wave refraction, downhole, and crosshole surveys can be used, they are generally less economical than any other seismic methods in terms of field operation, data analysis, and overall cost. On the other hand, surface waves, commonly known as ground roll, are always generated in all seismic surveys, have the strongest energy, and their propagation velocities are mainly determined by the medium's shear-wave velocity. The sampling depth of a particular frequency component of surface waves is in direct proportion to its wavelength, and this property makes the surface wave velocity frequency dependent, i.e., dispersive.The multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method tries to utilize this dispersion property of surface waves for the purpose of V S profiling in 1D (depth) or 2D (depth and surface location) format. Basically it is an engineering seismic method dealing with frequencies in a few to a few tens of Hz (e.g., 3-30 Hz) recorded by using a multichannel (24 or more channels) recording system and a receiver array deployed over a few to a few hundred meters of distance (e.g., 2-200 m). The active MASW method generates surface waves actively through an impact source like a sledgehammer, whereas the passive method utilizes surface waves generated passively by cultural (e.g., traffic) or natural (e.g., thunder and tidal motion) activities. The investigation depth is usually shallower than 30 m with the active method, whereas it can reach a few hundred meters with the passive method. The main advantage of MASW is its ability to take into full account the complicated nature of seismic waves that always contain noise waves such as unwanted higher modes of surface waves, body waves, scattered waves, traffic waves, etc., as well as fundamental-mode surface waves (Figure 1). These waves may often adversely influence each other during the analysis of their dispersion properties if they are not Figure 1. An illustration of the overall procedure and main advantage of the MASW method.Complicated nature of seismic waves is carried over into the measurement (multichannel record). Then, dispersion nature of different types of waves is accurately imaged through a 2D wavefield transformation. Certain noise wavefields such as back-and side-scattered surface waves and several types of body waves are automatically filtered ...