Both authors are incredibly experienced and have special intelligent backgrounds. The people who live by the Aral Sea often do not have the resources or intelligence to determine a plan or come up with a solution on how to solve the problems pertaining to the Aral Sea, so the research the two authors did on this subject is extremely useful and valuable to them.
The investigations of the Aral Sea done by the authors analyzed a number of different things. They researched the initial problem for the sea's downfall and discovered why the sea started to shrink. They closely measured the sea's water level and volume several times. The amount of salinity in the water was measured and the effect it had on certain things such as fish were looked at. The total number of species of fish, birds, and mammals was counted and calculated; in addition the amount of fish caught per metric tons was measured. The authors viewed the various ways in which irrigation affected the sea. The climate, humidity and rainfall was calculated and researched. The data was analyzed and compared to the facts from the 1960's, which was when the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake on the planet. They also looked specifically at how the dam built in 2005 helped to improve many of the problems that were occurring. .
The studies and investigations came back with specific results. Over 30 years, fish species went from 32 to 6, bird species went from 319 to 160, and mammal species went from 70 to 32. Commercial fisheries ended and that resulted in more than 60,000 related jobs being lost. Shipping on the Aral stopped because the water could no longer be connected to the major ports of Aralk to the north and Moynak in the south. The fact that shipping stopped took a huge toll on the city's economy. The climate changed up to 100 kilometers, so this meant hotter summers and colder winters. The researchers also found that the groundwater levels had dropped and that was intensifying desertification.