This study investigates how forest-based strategies can strengthen drought adaptation and enhance landscape identity within the metropolitan region of SGE. The research is twofold: it first examines the nature of forest-based spatial strategies and the research and design methods they represent; second, it explores how these strategies can bolster landscape identity and drought adaptation.

The study reframes forests and trees from traditional land types or natural capital into pivotal elements and methods of landscape design, emphasizing their ecosystem services. For drought adaptation, forest-based strategies link hydrological challenges with the regulating services of trees, integrating them into conventional hydrological strategies. For landscape identity, the focus is on tree language—a tree-based design approach that interprets and intervenes in the landscape, viewing the metropolitan territory from a forest perspective.

By clarifying and legitimizing landscape identity and drought adaptation as parallel issues, the study addresses these challenges through spatial, cultural, social, and environmental dimensions of forests and trees. It develops typological forestry strategies and design principles, translating challenges and opportunities into design objectives at three scales: regional, local, and intermediate.

At the regional scale, forestry strategies enhance diversity, narrative, and a healthy regional groundwater system. At the local scale, key sites demonstrate the spatial integration of these strategies, addressing conflicts or synergies in the visions and transforming over time. The intermediate scale results in a coherent blue-green spatial structure, experiential network, and hydrological function, reflecting the forest-based intertwining of city and landscape. This comprehensive approach shows how forests and trees can address diverse challenges through various spatial, cultural, social, and environmental lenses.