Using Four Capitals to Assess Watershed Sustainability Octavio Pe ´rez-Maqueo • M. Luisa Martinez • Gabriela Va ´zquez • Miguel Equihua Received: 15 February 2012 / Accepted: 15 October 2012 / Published online: 6 November 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 Abstract The La Antigua watershed drains into the Gulf of Mexico and can be considered as one of the most important areas in Mexico because of its high productivity, history, and biodiversity, although poverty remains high in the area in spite of these positive attributes. In this study, we performed an integrated assessment of the watershed to recommend a better direction toward a sustainable man- agement in which the four capitals (natural, human, social, and built) are balanced. We contrasted these four capitals in the municipalities of the upper, middle and lower watershed and found that natural capital (natural ecosys- tems and ecosystem services) was higher in the upper and middle watershed, while human and social capitals (liter- acy, health, education and income) were generally higher downstream. Overall, Human Development Index was negatively correlated with the percentage of natural eco- systems in the watershed, especially in the upper and lower watershed regions. Our results indicate that natural capital must be fully considered in projections for increasing human development, so that natural resources can be pre- served and managed adequately while sustaining inter- generational well-being. Keywords Watershed  Well-being  Natural capital  Ecosystem services  Sustainability Introduction Notwithstanding the many definitions that have been written in the literature, the concept of sustainability accepts that environmental, social equity, and economic demands, function as three supporting and mutually rein- forcing pillars (UN 2005). Without doubt, sustainability is embedded in complex socioecological systems (Ostrom 2009), and this coincides with the paradigm of Ecological Economics. According to this paradigm, in the four capitals framework, development relies on four types of capital: built, social, human, and natural. Built or manufactured capital (infrastructure) is the result of human ingenuity and technological change; it is created by human labor. Social capital (human well-being on a societal level) includes volunteer work, social cohesion, cultural diversity and ethics. Human capital (well-being and productive potential of individuals) refers to health and education. Finally, natural capital focuses on natural resources, which can be goods (renewable and non-renewable) and services (eco- system services) (Daly and Farley 2004). Sustainable and ecological economics acknowledge that nature is the life support system of the economy (Costanza and others 1997, 2002; Daly and Farley 2004) and conse- quently, sustainable decisions must consider the complex- ity of socioecological systems (Ostrom 2009). In this sense, studies of ecosystem services may offer common ground between social and ecological systems and this approach is useful in the evaluation of the complexity of socioecolog- ical development. Ecosystem services are essential elements that largely contribute to the human well-being, by means of security, provision of raw materials, health and social cohesion (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) 2005) and, given their importance, they have been studied and valued O. Pe ´rez-Maqueo (&)  M. Equihua Ambiente y Sustentabilidad, Instituto de Ecologı ´a, A.C., Km 2.5 Antigua Carretera a Coatepec 351, 91070 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico e-mail: octavio.maqueo@inecol.edu.mx M. L. Martinez  G. Va ´zquez Ecologı ´a Funcional, Instituto de Ecologı ´a, A.C., Km 2.5 Antigua Carretera a Coatepec, 91070 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico 123 Environmental Management (2013) 51:679–693 DOI 10.1007/s00267-012-9972-9