Not necessarily ingenious, but recognizing unstable terrain, and avoid activities that modify hydrology, such as avoid clearcutting, avoid road building or diverting road surface drainage into unstable soils and landforms.  It is possible that LiDAR DEM detail may be helpful with geology, soils and surface drainage, plus land use to help define areas with greater risk.  

It is possible that if changes cause tree mortality due to droughts or severe wildfires, this could increase risk, as could change in severe storm frequency and intensity.  Lack of sufficient road surface drainage can overload slopes with too much water.  In forest or rural roads, rolling drainage dips or reverse grades help to remove excess road drainage when used frequently of about every 3 m elevation change (variable depending on conditions).  My paper on watershed restoration after calamity has a landslide example that may be of some interest to you.  

Several of the US Forest Service scientists were especially interested in this subject in the 1970s in western USA forests.  

Indigenous communities in the Ashanti Region of Ghana have deliberately instituted taboos against the construction of buildings near watersheds, rivers, and streams. There is a bank vegetation of 50-100 meters that is supposed to be left around river bodies and streams. Pathways and streets are not supposed to be disturbed since the ancestors and deities would be furious on culprits and may inflict lasting plaque on the entire society. Therefore, traditional councils in most local communities here punish culprits severely while the entire community in a collective fashion desolates all structures that could change the hydrological patterns that may eventually lead to a landslide.

Indigenous farming practices such as agroforestry, ban against wildfires and slash-and-burn practices also aid in avoiding landslides.

The stringent cultural practices, traditions and belief systems of local communities can be harnessed and utilized in modern policies against landslide and other serious environmental challenges that destroy lives and properties.