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The Blaney-Criddle (BC) temperature-based equation is used in areas where the complete weather data to estimate reference evapotranspiration (ET0) by the Penman-Monteith FAO-56 (PMF-56) standard model is complex. In this study, the BC equation was first tested and calibrated against the ET0 values computed by the PMF-56 method using data from 17 weather stations in arid regions of Iran. Then, geographical information systems (GIS)-based spatially-distributed maps of ET0 were prepared by means of geographic/topographic factors derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) for all months, separately. The results indicate that the original BC equation overestimated PMF-56 ET0 by 4% at the study sites. The BC equation produced closer ET0 estimates to the PMF-56 method after it was calibrated. The error rate of <3% for the spatial modelling approach suggests that the developed ET0 maps are reliable.