Spatial and temporal variations in reference crop evapotranspiration in a mountainous Island, Jeju, in South Korea

This study aims to assess the spatial and temporal variability of reference crop evapotranspiration (ET) over the mountainous Jeju Island, South Korea. In this mountainous region, only limited observed, station-based meteorological data are available, and thus statistical approaches are used to construct monthly reference crop ET maps. The maximum and minimum temperatures, wind speed, and relative humidity are gap filled using principal component regression (PCR) or multiple linear regression (MLR) and are then spatially interpolated using the hybrid Kriging method to construct monthly maps of reference crop ET at a resolution of 100 m. This study reveals various reference crop ET characteristics for Jeju Island that have not been investigated in previous studies. With increasing elevation and distance from the coast, the air temperature decrease and relative humidity (RH) increase. Therefore, the reference crop ET generally decreases. An increasing trend until the mid-2000s is present in the annual average reference crop ET values, and most of this increase arises from increasing trends in spring and summer. Summer reference crop ET values exhibit increasing trends over time below 1000 m a.s.l. and decreasing trends over time above 1000 m a.s.l.