Natural systems make their natural capital and ecosystem services available to human economy. A careful analysis of the interplay between natural and human-made capital is needed to prevent natural capital being overexploited for present economic benefits, affecting lifestyles and wellbeing of future generations. In this study, the emergy synthe- sis is used to evaluate the natural and the human-made capital of Campania region (southern Italy) by accounting for the environmental support directly and indirectly provided by nature to resource generation. Furthermore, geo- graphic information system (GIS) models are integrated with the emergy accounting procedure to generate maps of the spatial patterns of both natural and human-made capital distribution. Regional storages of natural and human- made capital are identified and evaluated in emergy units (seJ). The human-made capital of the Campania region (6.29E + 24 seJ) results to be about 11 times higher than the natural capital (5.69E + 23 seJ) due to the past and present exploitation of the natural resources needed to generate it over time.
Moreover, by overlaying the total natural capital map and the total human-made capital map with a map of the protected areas within the region, only the 19% of the regional natural capital appears to be concentrated within protected areas, while most of it (81%) is concentrated outside. These findings suggest that the conservation of nat- ural resources is also necessary outside protected areas by means of suitable policies, directives and investments. The human-made capital is mainly concentrated (88%) inside non-protected areas and interacts with the local natural capital. A management of the interactions between the two categories of wealth is crucial to prevent that the growth of human-made storages degrades the natural ecosystems and the environment. The proposed emergy–GIS frame- work reveals to be a useful tool for environmental planning and resource management aimed to conserve and pro- tect the regional environmental heritage.