  Structural correlations in disordered media are known to affect significantly
the propagation of waves. In this article, we theoretically investigate the
transport and localization of light in 2D photonic structures with short-range
correlated disorder. The problem is tackled semi-analytically using the
Baus-Colot model for the structure factor of correlated media and a modified
independent scattering approximation. We find that short-range correlations
make it possible to easily tune the transport mean free path by more than a
factor of 2 and the related localization length over several orders of
magnitude. This trend is confirmed by numerical finite-difference time-domain
calculations. This study therefore shows that disorder engineering can offer
fine control over light transport and localization in planar geometries, which
may open new opportunities in both fundamental and applied photonics research.
