Large-scale biodiversity data, for example, on species distribution and richness information, are being mobilized and becoming available at an increasing rate. Interactive web applications like atlases have been developed to visualize available datasets and make them accessible to a wider audience. Web mapping tools are changing rapidly, and different underlying concepts have been developed to visualize datasets at a high cartographic standard.Here, we introduce the Combined Atlas Framework for the development of interactive web atlases for ecological data visualization. We combine two existing approaches: the five stages of the user-centred design approach for web mapping applications and the three U approach for interface success.Subsequently, we illustrate the use of this framework by developing the Atlas of Plant Invasions based on the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database. This case study illustrates how the newly developed Combined Atlas Framework with a user-centred design philosophy can generate measurable success through communication with the target user group, iterative prototyping and competitive analysis of other existing web mapping approaches.The framework is useful in creating an atlas that employs user feedback to determine usability and utility features within an interactive atlas system. Finally, this framework will enable a better-informed development process of future visualization and dissemination of biodiversity data through web mapping applications and interactive atlases.

Biodiversity Macroecology and Biogeography University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

Bioinvasions Global Change Macroecology Group Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University Vienna Vienna Austria

Campus Institut Data Science Göttingen Germany

Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany Department of Invasion Ecology Průhonice Czech Republic

Department of Biosciences Durham University Durham UK

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Ecology Department of Biology University of Konstanz Constance Germany

Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation University of Twente Enschede the Netherlands

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig Germany

Research Division Cartography Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation Vienna University of Technology Vienna Austria

Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Taizhou University Taizhou China

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