This dataset contains tabular data at three scales (city, tract, and synoptic site) and related vector shapefiles (for watersheds or buffers around synoptic sites) for areas included in the Carbon in Urban River Biogeochemistry Project (CURB) to assess how social, built, and biophysical factors shape aquatic functions. The city scale included 486 urban areas in the continental United States with greater than 50,000 residents. Tabular data are provided for each urban area (CURB_CensusUrbanArea.csv) and all U.S. Census tracts within seven urban areas (Atlanta, GA, Boston, MA, Miami, FL, Phoenix, AZ, Portland, OR, Salt Lake City, UT, and San Francisco, CA; CURB_CensusTract.csv) to characterize a range of social, built, and biophysical factors. In six focal cities (Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, Salt Lake City, UT, and Portland, OR) up to 100 sites were selected for synoptic water quality sampling. For each synoptic site tabular data (CURB_SynopticSite.csv) are provided to characterize a range of social, built, and biophysical factors within the watershed (Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Portland, Salt Lake City) or within a buffer of the site (Miami). Vector shapefiles are provided for the watershed boundaries (CURB_Synoptic_Watersheds.zip) for all synoptic sites in each city except Miami, FL where 400-m buffers (CURB_Miami_Synoptic_Buffers.zip) around the synoptic site were used.