Global changes have largely altered the magnitude and d tribution of evapotranspiration (ET), which in turn significantly impacts regional water availability and water pa titioning, particularly in semi-arid areas, such as the Agricultural-Pastoral Ecotone in North est hina (APENC). In this study, the Budyko framework was revised and applied at a finer spatio-temporal scale for th si lation and attribution of monthly ET variability in dry regions. As a holistic approach for modeling wat r partitioning, the revised Budyko framework (RBF) is expected to achieve parsimony of data i put and mode parameters. Application of the Budyko-based framework in the APENC showed an accurate E simulation (R2 0.96, RMSE = 3.45 mm/mon, NSE = 0.95), which is a better performance compared with two classical m dels, FAO crop coefficient model and Complimentary Relationship (CR) model with in situ bserv ions. For he attribution of monthly ET variability, vegetation has the highest sensitivity coefficient, whil the pr ip tation shows the largest actual contribution because of its larger variability. Subsequently, the RBF was assessed with two different groups of in situ observations in semi-arid areas with different vironment and v getation conditions, and showed credible results on ET simulation. This shows that the RBF with parsimony of model parameters is highly applicable in data lacking dry regions.