This paper deals with a wave process induced by an acoustic impulse in a vertically inhomogeneous half-space. The solvability of the corresponding direct initial boundary value problem is proved. We also consider a class of one-dimensional inverse problems including, in particular, the classical inverse problem of the scattering theory, the transmission and reflection problems of seismology, etc. It is shown that all these inverse problems are equivalent in a certain sense, and therefore can be solved by identical methods. Theoretical results are illustrated by numerical examples.