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Paulo Murillo is an assistant professor at Tolima University and a NASA collaborator. Hear more about him and his work in his InterDialogue on land use science, remote sensing, and socializing the pixel: buff.ly/ucyRLlf
Yet the broader implication is clear: even as AI expands the analytical frontier, land system science cannot rely on computation alone. Meaningful interpretation still depends on integrating algorithmic insights with local knowledge, social context, and grounded expertise.
However, these systems are only as powerful as their data inputs. AI models require “prodigious amounts of training data” to function, and their outputs remain shaped by the limitations of those datasets. Still, at increasingly fine resolutions, AI-driven remote sensing is unlocking new capacities.
These advances allow scientists like Murillo to detect patterns, track changes, and respond to environmental dynamics with unprecedented speed. “Artificial intelligence is going to play an increasingly powerful role in the next decade,” says Murillo.
In an article for The InterPlex, Colombian land use and remote sensing scientist Paulo Murillo explains that “advanced algorithms can now classify satellite imagery much better than previous algorithms,” enabling a dramatic leap in accuracy and scale. Learn more in the full article: buff.ly/J7iIiAb
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Gómez Soto's affiliations include the Science Panel for the Amazon and Gaia Amazonas. Learn more about the importance of decentralization and the report to which she contributed in a recent InterPlex article: buff.ly/vHrkCqi
Building flexible context-based infrastructures that allow local initiatives to scale on their own terms represents a viable path toward a holistic and sustainable socio-bioeconomy for the Amazon. Learn more in the full InterDialogue: buff.ly/gzV23v9
These hubs are meant to support self-organizing systems that can adapt to the Amazon’s rich biocultural diversity while strengthening local economies, enabling circular resource use, and expanding access to decentralized energy solutions.
What is needed, says Gómez Soto, is “a range of hubs of different sizes... that interact with local, regional, and global markets in different scales.” This implies the development of decentralized, distributed hubs that function as local energy nodes connecting communities to larger networks.
This requires moving away from centralized, commodity-driven models. Instead of focusing on what products are developed, she suggests prioritizing how systems are organized, combining local and traditional knowledge with technical and scientific expertise to solve bottlenecks.
In this InterDialogue excerpt, anthropologist and environmentalist Mariana Gómez Soto discusses scaling socio-bioeconomies in the Amazon, as proposed in the Science Panel for the Amazon’s 2025 Assessment Report, in which she was the lead author of the “Connectivity for socio-bioeconomies” chapter.
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Rasolt's perspective became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted rural and off-grid communities. Read the article, to which Prias contributed, here: buff.ly/izHW7ov
Prias’s perspective parallel's Daniel Henryk Rasolt's in an article on decentralized energy technologies. Rasolt argues that a decentralized approach to clean energy strengthens long-term resilience, autonomy, and the ability to integrate new technologies as they emerge.
Prias argues that the success of decentralized energy in Colombia will depend not just on technology, but on whether communities can organize and maintain these systems independently, without reliance on others. Learn more in the full InterDialogue: buff.ly/MpAY8HO
The Colombian state has begun facilitating workshops and pilot initiatives to introduce communities to decentralized energy solutions like solar, wind, and biogas. However, technology deployment is advancing faster than the social infrastructure required to sustain it.
Regulatory clarity, pricing structures, and governance models are still being defined, and efforts to build local capacity lag behind policy ambition. “It’s not just about setting up technology… We need to better define the governance of energy communities,” says Prias.
In this InterDialogue excerpt, electrical engineer Omar Prias discusses Colombia’s energy transition policy, decentralized systems, and community models. While policymakers increasingly recognize “energy communities” as important to the energy sector, implementation is uneven.
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Omar Prias is professor at the National University of Colombia and former president of the Colombian Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (CREG). Among other affiliations, he currently directs the Energy Sector Research Group (GRISEC) and the Colombian Network on Energy Efficiency (RECIEE).
As the Colombian case shows, energy is fundamental to every socioeconomic activity—but how it is produced, distributed, and used is always determined by local conditions. Watch the full InterDialogue here: buff.ly/MpAY8HO
Buildings and industries can now generate their own power and even feed surplus electricity back into the grid. The long-term opportunity lies in combining a centralized national grid with decentralized, technologically advanced energy systems.
Hydropower dominates, but thermal sources (gas and coal) provide backup during droughts—an issue exacerbated by climate change. Emerging solutions like solar photovoltaics and distributed self-generation are beginning to reshape Colombia’s energy system.
“In all countries and regions and in all communities, the issue of energy is fundamental. It's a part of life and the economic development of any region,” says Prias. At the same time, Colombia’s energy matrix is diverse and increasingly flexible.
Yet Colombia still struggles to translate this potential into equitable and efficient energy access. The gap lies not in resource availability but in planning, technology deployment, and uneven regional development. Many areas still lack access to electricity or modern energy services.
In this InterDialogue excerpt, Colombian electrical engineer, professor, and policy consultant Omar Prias discusses energy as the invisible infrastructure shaping everything from daily life to industrial output. Colombia is an energy-rich country with extraordinary geographic advantages.
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