Bounding Volume Hierarchies (BVH) are data structures used in computer graphics and computational geometry to efficiently organize and manage 3D objects. They group objects into a hierarchy of bounding volumes, which are simple shapes like spheres or boxes that enclose the actual objects. This allows for faster collision detection and rendering by quickly eliminating large groups of objects that do not intersect with a given ray or view. In a BVH, each node represents a bounding volume that contains its child nodes or objects. When performing operations like ray tracing or collision detection, the algorithm can traverse the hierarchy, checking only the relevant bounding volumes. This significantly reduces the number of calculations needed, improving performance in applications such as video games and simulations.