Dozens of Sydney councils have ranked the biggest threats facing the city as part of a campaign to strengthen resilience.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore and 32 other metropolitan councils launched the Resilient Sydney strategy on how to cope with major challenges.

It ranked extreme weather as the No.1 acute risk facing the city.

That was followed by infrastructure failure, financial institution failure, water crisis and digital network failure.

A terror attack was sixth on the list of acute shocks, followed by disease pandemic and cyber attack.

The report identified health services demand as the No.1 chronic stress facing Sydney.

Housing affordability, social cohesion and employment diversity were the next chronic stresses listed.

Inequity, chronic illness, transport diversity, drug and alcohol abuse were also named as chronic stresses.

Sydney has more people born overseas than London, Singapore and New York but poor transport links have fragmented the city into many separate cultural groups, the report noted.

The report was the result of two years’ work between the 33 councils, and collaboration from 100 businesses and government organisations. More than 1000 residents were involved in the project.

Cr Moore said the generosity, inventiveness and collaboration shown were qualities residents need to cope with future challenges.

“We’re seeing rising inequality, more homelessness, mental illness and obesity. And we’re experiencing increasingly extreme weather events with every year classed as another record-breaking year in terms of rising temperatures,” Cr Moore said in a statement.

All these issues are challenges in themselves and they aren’t unique to Sydney – the effects of urbanisation, globalisation and climate change are seen right around the world.

“Resilient Sydney recognises no one organisation can solve our problems and instead looks at how we can work together, across boundaries to protect and champion the needs and interests of our communities.”

Chief resilience officer Beck Dawson said resilience was “well and truly a team sport”.

“We absolutely cannot do it by ourselves,” she said on Tuesday.

“The strength of the connections over the back fences, between organisations in apartment buildings, between communities and householders, between businesses and governments is what is going to make this a reality for Sydney.”

The strategy calls for a scoring system to reduce the effects of extreme heat.

It also says councils should have a 5 per cent improvement in community cohesion within five years.

Councils have been told to improve social cohesion by listening more to Aboriginal elders, encouraging community engagement and supporting diversity in leadership.

A supporter of the report, the Red Cross, on Tuesday launched an app called Get Prepared to help Australians create checklists and get ready for times of disaster.

 -with AAP