Urban riverfront spaces and associated riverine landscapes play important roles in promoting human-river interactions and shaping the regional characteristics of a city. This paper explored the urban riverfront space from the material level of the riverine landscape to a multi-dimensional cognitive level and constructed a theoretical exploration model of the influence of three cognitive dimensions (sensual cognition, intellectual cognition, and rational cognition) on the ‘sense of place’ (SOP) in urban riverfronts. In addition, the measurement scales for different cognitive dimensions were explored and designed. The structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyse 329 valid survey questionnaires in June 2019 in Dujiangyan Yihu Park, China. The analysis of the case study results showed that the overall theoretical model had a good model fit. The sensual cognition, intellectual cognition, and rational cognition all had a significant influence on the SOP in the riverfront park, of which the intellectual cognition had the most significant influence. Strengthening the creation of a riverine landscape for intellectual cognition is expected to enhance the SOP in riverfront spaces more effectively and achieve more enriched interactions between people and rivers.