| Abstract: | The Bosten Lake watershed investigated in this study has seen significant land cover and climate change. The spatiotemporal relationship between evapotranspiration (ET) and environmental factors remain unclear. In this study, trend analysis and correlation methods are applied to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of ET and the relationship between ET and its driving factors using remotely sensed ET data and measured climate data between 2001 and 2018. During the study period, high values of ET primarily occurr in the wetlands of the plain area and the mid‐elevation mountain areas. The ET values show a significantly increasing trend in the different vegetation types due to climate change and other factors. The ET change trend in the study area is in the range of ?13.4 to ≈35.9 mm per year; the desert area exhibits a significant decrease and most of the mountain areas show a significantly increasing trend. ET is significantly correlated with land surface temperature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and solar radiation. The dominant factor affecting ET is NDVI, accounting for 15.2% of the study area. The results of this study highlight the need for appropriate land‐use strategies for managing water resources in arid land ecosystems. |
