Following his field studies on the irrigation systems, Kosok planned two volumes: one of general interest and one more technical. He was working on the general interest book on the irrigation of ancient cultures when he died in 1959; it was published posthumously in 1965 with the support of Schaedel. His manuscript for a scholarly text needed work that was to be undertaken by the University of Texas. Kosok's book included extensive mapping of canals through numerous valleys and innovative use of aerial photography. His work was praised posthumously as a "program of research about the significance of irrigation on the North Coast of Peru to both Andean and cross-cultural studies, a source-book of ideas and hypotheses for generations of field workers".