The researchers wanted to find an efficient way to measure the water runoff in the Sulak area of Iraq without spending too much time or money on traditional methods. They combined a modified computer model and satellite data to estimate how much water flows over the land during rain. By splitting the region into smaller sections and comparing different techniques, they discovered that the steepness of the land affects the amount of runoff. They also found that the runoff can vary a lot across the Sulak area. Testing different methods, they saw that one method tends to predict higher runoff amounts. Overall, they determined that more than half of the water runoff occurs in January and February because of intense rain and wet soil during those months.