Rivers are considered to be an important source of atmospheric CO₂, while the responses of riverine CO₂ evasion rate to intensified human activities such as urbanization are poorly understood. The characterization of CO₂ partial pressure (pCO₂) in three rivers with different urbanization gradients of the Three Gorges Reservoir area was studied. Water sampling was thus carried out in August 2018. pH values and water temperatures were measured in situ using a portable CyberScan PCD 650 multi-parameters system (Eutech, USA), while both the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrients (DTN-dissolved total nitrogen, DTP-dissolved total phosphorus) were determined in the laboratory. Land use composition was extracted by ArcGIS 10.3. The pCO₂ of rivers with different urbanization intensity was calculated by pH, alkalinity and water temperature. Our results indicated that the proportions of urban area are as follows: Ruxi RiverpCO₂ were 1790±1210 μatm, 2006±3546 μatm, 4094±4218 μatm respectively. The average pCO₂ were much higher than the atmospheric equilibrium,and the studied rivers were therefore characterized as a CO₂ source. The concentrations of DOC, DTN and Alk (Alkalinity), EC (Conductivity) were significantly different among rivers. The concentrations of DOC, DTN, DTP and Alk were consistent with the riverine urbanization gradients. We concluded that urbanization could enhance riverine pCO₂, and thus potentially increased riverine CO₂ evasion. Our results supported the hypothesis that human intensive practices would increase riverine dissolved CO₂ and water-air areal flux, which would be helpful for the prediction of riverine CO₂ emission under regional and global urbanization.