Analysis and prediction of reference evapotranspiration with climate change in Xiangjiang River Basin, China
Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is often used to estimate actual evapotranspiration in water balance studies. In this study, the present and future spatial distributions and temporal trends of ET0 in the Xiangjiang River Basin (XJRB) in China were analyzed. ET0 during the period from 1961 to 2010 was calculated with historical meteorological data using the FAO Penman-Monteith (FAO P-M) method, while ET0 during the period from 2011 to 2100 was downscaled from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) outputs under two emission scenarios, representative concentration pathway 4.5 and representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP45 and RCP85), using the statistical downscaling model (SDSM).