diff --git a/workspace/01_HI_prep.Rmd b/workspace/01_HI_prep.Rmd
index 2792b57789b9b545dd892442df6f2b16dd34d2b7..7af7a919a6c4861713fdc0bd1289008271e9b8dc 100644
--- a/workspace/01_HI_prep.Rmd
+++ b/workspace/01_HI_prep.Rmd
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ library(readxl)
 library(rgdal)
 
 # Numeric code for HI VPU
-vpu <- "20"
+vpu_code <- "20"
 
 # directory of data
 data_dir <- "data"
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ if(needs_layer(data_paths$hi_source, nhd_flowline)) {
 
   # subset by VPU
   nhd <- readRDS(file.path(data_paths$islands_dir, "NHDPlusNationalData", "nhdplus_flowline.rds")) %>% 
-    filter(VPUID == vpu) %>%
+    filter(VPUID == vpu_code) %>%
     # transform to UTM Zone 4N
     st_transform(crs)
   
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ if(needs_layer(data_paths$hi_source, raw_wbd)) {
   
   # Use HUC12 layer in the HI_PR GDB
   huc12 <- read_sf(data_paths$islands_gdb, layer = "HUC12") %>% 
-    filter(grepl(paste0("^", vpu, ".*"), .data$HUC_12)) %>%
+    filter(grepl(paste0("^", vpu_code, ".*"), .data$HUC_12)) %>%
     st_transform(., crs = st_crs(nhd))
   
   # write to gpkg