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Evapotranspiration is a central process of the hydrological cycle, and various water saving measures are based on it. However, there is little research work on evapotranspiration in the world. In particular, there is rare hydrological cycle-based research on the impact of channel lining on evapotranspiration in arid and semi-arid regions. This paper applies a hydrological cycle model to examine the effect of channel lining on evapotranspiration in the Yellow River Irrigation District in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China where agriculture consumes over half of the total water consumption in the irrigation district. The results show that channel lining can effectively reduce the diversion and consumption of water from the Yellow River. When lining rate is increased from 30% to 60%, the total water diverted from the Yellow River will be reduced by 7.1%, while water consumption is decreased by 3.2%. A higher channel lining rate reduces infiltration into groundwater and lowers the groundwater level, which results in less ecological water consumption.