Time trend and change point of reference evapotranspiration over Iran

Identifying changes in reference evapotranspiration (ETo) can help in future planning of crop water requirements and water resources for high water-use efficiency. This study analyzes the ETo trends on a seasonal and annual timescale by applying various statistical tools to data from 41 Iranian weather stations during the period between 1966 and 2005. The Mann–Kendall test after removal of significant serial correlation was used to determine the statistical significance of the trends, and the change point in the ETo time series was determined using the cumulative sum technique. The results showed that (1) the significant increasing trends of annual ETo were observed at seven stations which are located in different parts of Iran, (2) the stations located at the southeast, northeast, and northwest corners of Iran experienced the highest positive change of annual ETo, and (3) the changes in seasonal ETo were most pronounced in the winter season, both in terms of trend magnitude and the number of stations with significant trends.