In recent years, growing attention is paid to remote sensing when used for disaster management applications. This is essentially due to the large variety of remotely acquired imagery available for the extraction of geometric and thematic features in order to map, delineate and grade natural disasters impacts. Another key point is the quick availability of those images in rapid mapping procedures in order to deliver the data (reference and thematic) to concerned users. This paper briefly describes the current state-of-the-art of remote sensing techniques usage in emergency mapping, paying particular attention, in the second part, to the GIO-EMS new operational service delivered by the European Commission.