diff --git a/2_process.R b/2_process.R
index 1e3105eee12a54a0a88e366b2dd36d6f0dce9000..bc448f702b3d4cbd18d96d68d31b6e9028a6c1ce 100644
--- a/2_process.R
+++ b/2_process.R
@@ -254,14 +254,12 @@ tar_target(p2_conus_inner,
 tar_target(p2_pop_density_processed,
            process_pop_dens_raster(in_raster = p1_pop_density_raster_tif, #proj = p1_proj, 
                                    conus = p2_conus_sf, conus_proj = p2_conus_sf_proj,
-                                   outfile_path = "2_process/out/pop_density.tif")),
-tar_target(p2_pop_density_filepath,
-           "2_process/out/pop_density.tif"),
+                                   outfile_path = "2_process/out/pop_density.tif"),
+           format = "file"),
 # process impervious surfaces raster data
 tar_target(p2_imp_surf_processed,
            process_imp_surf(in_raster = p1_imp_surf_tif, conus_proj = p2_conus_sf_proj,
-                            outfile_path = "2_process/out/imp_surfaces.tif")),
-tar_target(p2_imp_surfaces_filepath,
-           "2_process/out/imp_surfaces.tif")
+                            outfile_path = "2_process/out/imp_surfaces.tif"),
+           format = "file")
 
 )
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/2_process/src/data_utils.R b/2_process/src/data_utils.R
index c7ab01ee03c76cfd00615c837072862da46b767d..b3c5af40f23aeb7b51ef053db2f90249eb2d1704 100644
--- a/2_process/src/data_utils.R
+++ b/2_process/src/data_utils.R
@@ -89,7 +89,9 @@ process_pop_dens_raster <- function(in_raster, conus, conus_proj, outfile_path){
   # convert back into raster
   usa_dat_rast <- as_spatraster(usa_dat) 
   
-  writeRaster(usa_dat_rast, filename=outfile_path, overwrite=TRUE)
+  writeRaster(usa_dat_rast, filename = outfile_path, overwrite=TRUE)
+  
+  return(outfile_path)
 }
 
 process_imp_surf <- function(in_raster, conus_proj, outfile_path){
@@ -107,5 +109,7 @@ process_imp_surf <- function(in_raster, conus_proj, outfile_path){
   # match boundaries of population data to conus data
   imp_surf_mask <- terra::mask(imp_surf_proj, terra::vect(conus_proj))
   
-  writeRaster(imp_surf_mask, filename=outfile_path, overwrite=TRUE)
+  writeRaster(imp_surf_mask, filename = outfile_path, overwrite=TRUE)
+  
+  return(outfile_path)
 }
\ No newline at end of file