  We show that curvature-induced inhomogeneous strain distributions in
nanoscale buckled semiconducting ribbons lead to the existence of end states
which are topologically protected by inversion symmetry. These end-state
doublets, corresponding to the so-called Maue-Shockley states, are robust
against weak disorder. By identifying and calculating the corresponding
topological invariants, we further show that a buckled semiconducting ribbon
undergoes topological phase transitions between trivial and non-trivial
insulating phases by varying its real space geometry.
