Insights into how public audiences perceive and relate to the ocean are pivotal to successful societal engagement and integration of human dimensions in marine conservation. Perceptions research explores how people understand, value or engage with an environment, issue or management response, and in the context of marine conservation, provides crucial insights for the development, delivery and evaluation of effective conservation interventions. This review of 349 peer reviewed studies explores the current state of research into public perceptions of the ocean. Using an extensive data extraction process, the review examined the geographical spread of ocean perceptions research, the topics of research focus, and the methods used. The review identifies gaps in current research activity, and opportunities for maximizing the impact of ocean perceptions research in current and future marine conservation. Key findings of the review include evidence that the rate of research is growing, with 59% of studies published between 2013–2017. However, a clear geographical skew is evident, with the majority of studies being undertaken in higher income countries. Furthermore, there has been a tendency to focus on charismatic species, or issues and spaces of clear human-ocean interaction (e.g., beaches), highlighting significant gaps in the topics and themes currently covered by ocean perceptions research. An additional gap identified is the underutilization of available methods to explore the complexity of marine perceptions. In a bid to address these gaps, the paper concludes with a series of recommendations designed to stimulate and support ocean perceptions research as being fundamental to the success of marine conservation efforts. While ocean perceptions research may be young, the growing research effort evidenced in this review gives optimism for realizing its potential and continuing to improve the integration of ocean perceptions research effectively into marine conservation.

This paper describes the innovative and complex process of planning and designing a major programme of temporary venues for the London 2012 olympic and Paralympic Games. It sets out the unique challenges of designing high-quality temporary venues and at the same time meeting sustainability, technical and cost parameters. The paper explains the early decision-making process and key drivers that influenced the overall approach to deciding whether venues would be permanent, temporary or a mix of both. It also discusses some of the issues related to temporary as opposed to reusable, demountable or relocatable. The Basketball Arena is used as a case study to demonstrate how an innovative approach has delivered significant cost and programme benefits and to share the key lessons learned.

This paper describes the complex process of designing and planning development of the olympic Park for the London 2012 olympic and Paralympic Games and for its immediate conversion after the games. It provides examples of the tests applied to the design process to ensure buildings and infrastructure were designed to meet long-term regeneration ambitions as well as the unique technical requirements for the games. It also describes the way temporary buildings, infrastructure and seating were used to resolve the tension between the short-term needs for the games and the long-term viability of venues and parklands.

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