This article investigates the multifaceted dimensions to understand the interrelatedness among global change drivers and their implications for landslide hazards and disaster risk. Drawing on empirical research, it utilised a mixed-methods design; the research combined diverse data sources and experiential insights on the interdependencies bounded by local context and global scale. The findings underscore the urgent need for holistic approaches that consider the complex dimensions of landslides as socio-natural hazards and global change, emphasising the importance of collaboration, innovation, and international cooperation in building resilience and mitigating the adverse effects of landslide disaster risk on global systems and societies. Furthermore, the challenge of reducing landslide disaster risk lies in understanding and addressing the interplay between socio-environmental transformations and geodynamic processes. The escalating effects of climate change, urban expansion, and deforestation are anticipated to magnify the occurrence of landslides, thereby posing significant risks to human lives, infrastructure, ecosystems, and livelihoods. However, most importantly, these risks are further compounded by environmental, social, economic, political, cultural, and technological spheres associated with globalisation. The systemic nature of disaster risk, particularly landslides in a changing world, highlights the interconnectedness of different systems, resulting in complex causality and cascading impacts. These insights contribute to the broader discourse on sustainability by providing empirical evidence that supports integrated approaches to achieving long-term disaster risk reduction based upon the equitable and sustainable use of territories while integrating robust disaster risk management strategies to ensure resilient communities and ecosystems.

Early warning systems (EWSs) are widely considered to be one of the most important mechanisms to prevent disasters around the globe. But as disasters continue to affect countries where EWSs have already been implemented, the striking disaster consequences have led us to reflect on the focus, architecture, and function of the warning systems. Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami there has been a rapid rise in the promotion and use of EWSs to minimize disaster losses and damage. However, few researchers have addressed the question of their acceptability as an adaptive measure to the existing exposure conditions. EWSs are far more linked to emergency response and humanitarian crises and accepted technological interventions as solutions than they are to explicitly advance integrated analysis, disaster risk reduction, and policy making. A major flaw of EWSs is that the term “early” has been essentially used in reference to the speed of hazard onset, founded on a physicalist perspective that has encouraged a considerable dependence on technology. In this article we address the need for a clear understanding of the root causes and risk drivers of disaster risk creation, as advanced in the FORIN (forensic investigation of disasters) approach, as a prerequisite for the development of more articulated EWSs that could contribute to disaster risk reduction through policy making and practice, based on integrated and transdisciplinary management, in the interest of sustainable development, and human welfare and well-being.