Background Christchurch is experiencing an ongoing series of earthquakes, with over 10,000 occurring since 4 September 2010. The most damaging of these happened on 22 February 2011, when 185 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured. Half the buildings in the central city and over 6,000 homes were irreparably damaged.

Aims/Objectives/Purpose The post-disaster environment presents the opportunity to examine how Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) can contribute to creating a safer, more liveable city. My work involves advocating for CPTED to be included in planning processes, leading CPTED reviews and assessments, training and mentoring a group of practitioners to meet expanding needs, and promoting the benefits of CPTED to stakeholder groups.

Methods The challenges of practising CPTED in a post-disaster environment and the learnings gained will be discussed, as well as the diverse environments where CPTED is practised.

Results/Outcomes Significant progress has been made towards having CPTED included in the city's planning processes and in expanding the understanding of the benefits of CPTED in stakeholder groups. While this is work in progress, and is part of a much larger and broader effort, we are optimistic about the potential improvements to safety.

Significance/Contribution to the field CPTED is being applied in the rebuild for Christchurch. Few communities have the opportunity to redesign large parts of their city and fewer have attempted to incorporate CPTED into this process.