Two major earthquakes struck the city of Christchurch and the broader Canterbury region, the magnitude Mw 7.1 on the 4th of September 2010 and the Mw 6.3 on the 22nd of February 2011. The two earthquakes caused significant damage to the urban environment and infrastructure as well as induced changes to the natural environment such as surface fissures, lateral spreading and slope failure. For both seismic events the intensity scales EMS1998 and ESI2007 were estimated, based on the observed structural damage and the impact on natural environment respectively. Both EMS1998 and ESI2007 scales resulted in similar maximum intensity values. For the September earthquake the comparison was achieved by normalizing the EMS1998 intensity values, observed in Christchurch city, to epicentral ones, using well established formulas. The convergence of the two methodologies for each event and the complement of their values based on different data, are important for seismic hazard and risk assessment in a region particularly since data from historical and recent earthquakes can be compared.