The workshop on mapping with drones for natural and built environments has been organised in the framework of the Brazilian-Swiss Joint Research Programme (BSJRP), which supports research activity and academic cooperation. The Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is the leading house of the BSJRP and had approved the project proposed by the Geodetic engineering laboratory (TOPO) from EPFL with the Brazilian partners: Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP), Universidade de São Paolo (USP) and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). This group of researchers have developed a joint programme on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for mapping applications. This project is composed of five main tasks with a state of the art, an inventory of analysis tools, the preparation of the workshop and its execution in Recife and finally the writing of these proceedings. The workshop has focused on the potential of new mapping systems based on drones. This topic has been discussed in the framework of potential scientific applications in the field of natural and built environments in Brazil. The main output of the workshop is the identification of the requirements and the research needs in monitoring of natural phenomena (coastal erosion, landslide) and the assessment of transport infrastructures.